Atlas Shrugged
by The Crazi Greek
Summary: I'm just a girl. Not a human. Not a demon. Just a girl. Rian is a strange human with a strange power she has no control over. She runs a gang called the Devil's Advocates and she isn't happy when the Tantei enter her life. Hiei/OC. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters (except Rian); they belong to Yoshihiro Togashi and Funamation. I am making no money by writing this.

Warnings: This story is rated for later chapters. So there may or may not be a lemon, I'll warn you beforehand if you don't like to read such things, but give the rest of the story a try please!

Authors Note: Okay! I'm back with a new one here guys. I've written a few other fan fictions but I took them down a long time ago. Now I'm here with a new Yu Yu Hakusho for you. This is a Hiei/OC and I'm going to try my best not to make her too Mary sue. But it may happen anyway and I don't care, ha-ha. My characters name is Rian (pronounced like Ryan) and I hope you like her Mary Sue or not. Now on to the story!

P.S. Atlas Shrugged is a REAL book by Ayn Rand; I'm just borrowing the name. This story has no relation to that book and the name is owned by Ayn Rand. Enjoy!

Atlas Shrugged – Chap. 1

**YYH**

Yusuke sat on the roof of his apartment building just watching the sun as it set. Now Yusuke isn't some romantic chap that liked watching these sappy kinds of things but this sunset, he had to admit, was beautiful. It was orange and purple and gold all at once. Yusuke didn't often stop to notices things such as this; he'd have to remind himself to do it more often. The sunset was not the reason for him sitting alone on the roof, though. The reason lay solely with Keiko. After the numerous tournaments Yusuke had risked his life fighting in he had returned and, as promised, proposed to Keiko. Even though Keiko knew it was coming it still shocked her and she had said no. Yusuke had asked her if she needed some time but Keiko gave him her reason then and there. It was because she couldn't deal with him being a Spirit Detective and couldn't deal with him becoming a king of part of that despicable Makai.

Yusuke knew that was all bullshit but he couldn't do anything about it. He respected her wishes and left. She had said they could still be friends – now Yusuke snorted at such a thing. In his hands was a box: the ring box, to be exact. Yusuke opened it and peered inside at the small but pretty diamond ring nestled in between the velvet. He picked it out and covered it with his fist. With all his might he threw it over the side of the building, watched as it sparkled away in the sun, and then was gone. Yusuke hung his head until he saw the ring hover right in front of his face. "What the hell!" he yelped in surprise.

There stood Hiei, holding the ring out to him. "Don't give up yet, Detective."

Yusuke just stared at him stupidly until Hiei removed the ring box from his hands and returned the ring to its rightful place until the time came that it would be placed on someone's finger.

"Why are you being so nice, Hiei? You're not usually like this." Yusuke glared at him for daring to be so bold.

"I'm not being nice detective; I just don't need you moping about when we have a mission to go on." Hiei folded his arms over his chest and glared right back; Hiei's glare was much more effective and Yusuke looked back at the box Hiei was still holding. He took it back and gingerly held it in his hand before slipping it into his jeans pocket.

That's when he finally caught onto what Hiei had said. "Another mission? Are you kidding me? What the hell does pacifier breath want now?"

"I never kid. And I don't know what he wants. I've only come to collect you. Now, move; I'd like to get this over with." With that Hiei was gone, leaving nothing but a slight breeze hinting that he'd run.

**YYH**

An hour later all the Tantei were finally rounded up and waiting in Koenma's office. Surprisingly, the baby prince of Rekai was not there. "Where the hell is he, Botan?" Yusuke demanded of the blue haired ferry girl.

"He'll be here in a moment Yusuke. Be patient." Botan rolled her eyes; she could tell he was in a ripe mood.

The detectives were in various disarray around the room. Hiei stood leaning against the wall in a corner farthest away from the rest of them. Yusuke was perched on Koenma's desk with Kuwabara standing next to him like some idiot body guard. Kurama sat leisurely in a chair with his legs crossed, looking like the epitome of all gentlemen.

Botan was just standing and was, aside from Kurama, the most patient person in the room. A few moments later the office doors opened and in strolled Koenma, lost in thought. "Took you long enough diapers," Yusuke growled.

"Hmm? Oh! You're all here. Finally!" Yusuke just glared at the tiny ruler. Koenma acted as if he had been the one waiting.

"Now guys, I have some very important business to discuss with you," Koenma said as he sat down and took out the remote for his giant television. "There's been a strange influx of energy coming from part of Tokyo but we can't figure out if it's demon or human spirit energy."

He clicked on the television then and what appeared on it was a map with a red dot marking something. Yusuke couldn't quite tell which part of the city it was trying to mark exactly.

"Okay, so you want us to go kill the thing that's making this energy. Gotcha!" Yusuke was ready to go and get it done and over with when Koenma gave him a very nasty look. "What the hell's your problem?"

"You won't kill it! It mustn't die! It has no evil coming from it. As far as we know this person has no idea they're even exuding this power." Koenma shook his head, realizing he'd just given something away.

"It's a person?" Kurama stood up and walked closer to Koenma's desk to better speak with him.

"Yes." Koenma sighed. "It's a 'she,' actually. A teenager just like you, Yusuke. She has no idea about her powers; she can't even use them or sense anyone else's. She's basically just like a normal human."

"Then why the hell are we here? If she's not a threat then we have no reason to be here. This is a waste of my time," Hiei spoke, glaring at the baby ruler.

"Oh and what are you going to spend your time doing Hiei? Sleeping in trees?" Kuwabara growled.

"What did you say, human scum? I'll kill you." Hiei went to pull out his katana when he felt a restraining hand on his arm. It was Yusuke who had moved from the desk in a blink of the eye. He gave Hiei an imperceptible shack of his head before flashing to once again sit upon Koenma's desk. He did the same to Kuwabara who just sighed and settled for attempting to glare back at Hiei.

"Are we done squabbling?" Before anyone could be a smartass, Koenma continued, "Now, the reason I called all of you here was to track the girl. If you can, bring her here and I will speak with her. After that's finished she'll be out of your hands and you'll never see her again."

With a wave of his hand Koenma dismissed them but not without first showing them a picture of the girl. Her name was Rian and she looked nothing like a normal teenager; she looked like a gang lord. With that, the Tentai left to start this new mission. Most were not happy about it; some were indifferent. All were ready to get it over and done with.

**YYH**

Rian sat on the roof of her building watching the sun set. Tears slipped from her eyes and fell on her hands which sat in her lap. Her life was hell and she only came up here on some of her worst days. Rian was the leader of the Devil's Advocates: a gang her older brother had created before he had died 3 years ago. Tenchi had been a ruthless leader and that was now expected of her. He had told his gang that she would be their new leader, that she was tough and trustworthy. Yes, she was those things, but she was not ruthless – not unless she had to be. Three years ago she had taken the tattoo of their gang, had sworn fealty to them, and then taken them to destroy another gang and take over their turf. One of the other boys had been killed. It was accidental but she continued to live with that guilt every day; she wasn't even the one that had made the guy fall on that jagged piece of wood sticking out of the ground. The sight of his blood still haunted her to this day.

Rian picked up a stone from the ground. She covered it with her fist and then threw it as hard as she could at the sun.

There was no Hiei to return it to her like he had with Yusuke's engagement ring. Rian continued to cry, not ready to go back done to her lonely apartment where she lived on her own. Her parents were long dead – had been since she was very young. Tenchi had always taken care of her when he was alive and had continued even after his death. Being the youngest in the gang the other boys took care of her even though she was their leader. Rian was 17 and the others ranged between 18 and 20 years of age. They called her little sister and would do anything for her if she asked for it. They were all good guys, they just hadn't had a good chance in life and that had hardened their souls, had made it easier for them to beat someone until they could barely walk; but none of them had ever killed a person. Not 'til that day. Rian had been the one to do it; she had been beating on the guy because he had said some lewd comment about her when he had tripped and fallen. The guys had gotten her out of there immediately and had hidden her until the cops no longer cared. After all, it was just some street punk; society wouldn't miss him and whoever had killed the boy had done Tokyo a favor. Rian had been sick after she heard that statement from the police and even sicker when people agreed with him.

"That's all in the past Rian, stop thinking about it now," she whispered to herself.

Rian rose from her perch on the floor, dusted herself off, and, with a flick of her hair, her eyes turned to steel. She turned and walked done the stairs to the lower floors, her façade firmly back in place.

Tomorrow would be a surprise even her façade wouldn't save her from.

**YYH**

Authors note: That's the first chapter folks. It may not be that long but I wanted to leave it off there and see what you all thought. So please read and review. I'll have the next chapter written in no time but I won't bother uploading it if none of you like that story.

See you next time!

The Crazi Greek


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Read the first chapter, it's in there.

Authors Note: Hi guys, sorry it took so long for this update to be posted but I only got 1 review, what's that huh? Ha-ha. Anyway, here's the new chapter, enjoy.

Atlas Shrugged – Chap. 2

The next morning Rian awoke to the sound of pounding on her apartment door, "What the hell!" she yelled. She rose from her bed, still in a pair of boxers and one of the guy's wife beaters, her hair in disarray. She didn't know which one she'd stolen the wife beater from. As the pounding continued, Rian leisurely wandered over to her coffee pot, poured herself a cup, and started drinking it. The pounding stopped and Rian couldn't help the small grin that crawled up her face when she heard her lock being picked; only one guy would have the nuts to do that.

The door burst open a second later and in strolled Jun. Jun was her second in command and also the closest friend she'd ever had; he was like another brother to her. The cocky grin on his face told Rian that he was pleased he could break into her home. "So, what the fuck did you think you were doing, Jun?"

"Trying to wake your ass up. That's what I was doing," Jun snapped.

"Oh ho? Were you now? Well, that was the sloppiest lock picking I have ever seen. An old deaf grandma would have caught you." Rian steeled her face to make it look like she was serious as Jun glared at her for the insult.

"How dare you! That was the most perfect lock picking you shall ever see!" Rian couldn't help it then; she burst out into giggles. The comical look on Jun's face when he'd said that had done her in.

"Listen, Imouto, it's time to go. We've got business to take care of today, remember?" Jun ruffled her hair and then walked out; Rian knew he'd be waiting in the lobby of her apartment building.

Her eyes downcast and the smile long gone, Rian dumped the rest of her black coffee down the drain and marched back to her bedroom to get ready for the day.

**YYH**

Yusuke walked down the street with the rest of the Tentai behind him. In his hands he carried one of Botan's Spirit Detective gadgets; this one was supposedly able to detect the energy they were searching for, except it kept moving. Yusuke was starting to get frustrated and that was never good.

"Botan, this friggen' thing ain't working!" Yusuke finally snapped, turning to glare at Botan who walked just a little ways behind him.

"First of all, 'ain't' isn't a word, and second, it's working just fine."

"Fuck you it is. The dot keeps skipping around."

"Yusuke! Watch your mouth! How rude. The dot is moving because the girl is moving. She's busy doing something; we should cut across town here," Botan pointed at the areas around the red dot, "And maybe we'll meet up with her here." She pointed again.

"Okay, let's do this." Yusuke tossed the pocket detector over his shoulder, which Botan barely caught before it hit the ground, and took off running.

"Hn. He's almost as much of a fool as the oaf." Hiei rolled his eyes and then flickered off after Yusuke leaving Kuwabara steaming – especially because he didn't get to retaliate.

"I hate that damn shrimp!"

"Now, now, Kazuma. Hiei's just high strung." Kurama patted him on the back then took off also.

Botan just grinned at him and pulled out her oar, taking to the skies. Kuwabara shook his head, sighed, and then took off full tilt to catch up with the much faster demons.

**YYH**

Rian round-house kicked her opponent in the face and watched as he dropped to the ground, unconscious. Bruises marred his eyes and the man's lip was split. He had blood dripping from his broken nose into his mouth, covering his teeth and making them red.

Rian brushed herself off, making sure her suit was still spotless, and then turned to watch her gang fight the rest of the opposing gang's men. Jun took out the last guy with a swift punch to the head and then turned and grinned at her. Rian forced a grin onto her face in return. She hadn't planned on fighting these men today; they had met up with them and, of course, neither gang could let the other leave unscathed.

"Score for the Devil's Advocates!" Jun yelled. The rest of the gang followed, cheering and laughing. Rian didn't join them. She rubbed the tattoo on her shoulder, wishing it would disappear. Hers was special of course, because she was their leader. The tattoo was an image of a skull and crossbones, the skull had devil's horns on its head, and underneath the skull was written, 'Diabolus Causidicus Senior.' Rian was the only one who had that; the others only had 'Causidicus' written beneath theirs.

Rian hated the tattoo, thought it was terribly ugly, but she had taken it with the promise she had made her brother in mind. Maybe someday, if the gang disbanded, she'd get a cover up tattoo put over it.

"Oi! Let's go men. We've got somewhere important we need to be," Rian called.

"Hai, Imouto!" they answered.

Hiei halted his running, putting his arm out to also stop Yusuke. Once the others saw Yusuke stop they all did the same.

"What is it, Hiei?" Yusuke asked.

"Don't you smell it, detective? There's blood in the air."

"Now that you mention it…I do smell it."

"You should learn to use your demon senses better, detective."

"Well excuse me for being human most of my life."

"Can we stop squabbling, please, boys?" Botan asked. "Let's follow the scent, shall we? Maybe we'll find something interesting." And then Botan took off on her oar.

"Is she stupid? There could be danger ahead!" Kuwabara chased after her.

Kurama chuckled, "The blood doesn't smell too fresh. I doubt there's a threat left there."

"Well, either way, we should go check it out." Yusuke took off also, followed by Hiei and Kurama.

The Tentai arrived in a back lot clearing surrounded by abandoned buildings that looked like they were ready to either fall down or be demolished.

"Holy shit!" Yusuke exclaimed.

The group looked around at the destruction left behind by Rian's gang. The opposing gang was still lying around unconscious, though some were moaning and seemed to be waking up. Yusuke wasn't going to stick around and wait for them. There had been a large gang fight here; it reminded him of his days in high school before he had become a spirit detective.

"Did that chick's gang do all this?" Kuwabara whispered.

"Must have; who else could it have been?" Yusuke answered.

"It didn't happen long ago. If we move now we may be able to catch up with them," Kurama suggested.

Hiei was already walking away, following the scent of blood that had left the area. "Get a move on before I lose the scent completely." And then Hiei was gone.

"We seem to be doing a lot of moving today," Botan joked. No one laughed with her. "Spoil sports," she whined.

**YYH**

Half an hour later and Rian found herself standing in front of a rather impressive and large building; it was all glass windows and fancy doors and she disliked it immediately. The place was full of criminals and other such lowlifes but that didn't matter to her. She had business to talk about with the head honcho, the worst of them all. The boss, Gintama, had a gang of his own. It was basically just creeps he hired to do his dirty work, but said creeps had been mucking up Rian's turf for far too long. So she had proposed a meeting to hopefully just talk it out instead of have any bloodshed.

"All right, boys, let's get this shit over and done with. I'm sick and tired of these bastards." Rian pounded her fist into the palm of her left hand and smirked as her boys raucously agreed with her in the background.

Pulling her suit jacket tighter around her front, Rian proceeded to the fancy revolving doors and entered the building. What waited for her was something none of them could have suspected. Oh, who the fuck was she kidding? She damn well knew some kind of shit like this would happen. 'Fuck my life,' was the only thought that could run through Rian's head at that moment.

**YYH**

The Tentai arrived at a large business like building where Hiei stood waiting for the rest of them. He looked annoyed and clearly was running out of what little patience the guy had. "So, what are we doing here man?" Yusuke asked.

"This is where the scent led, obviously," Hiei scowled. Why were they all so stupid?

"Well, should we go in and take a look?" Botan looked nervously up at the building. "Or maybe I could just fly up on my oar and look through the windows?"

"Let's go inside. Then we can grab this chick and be done with this bullshit mission." Yusuke grumbled before heading towards the doors; running around all day hadn't put him in a very good mood.

The rest of the Tentai followed him inside only to be greeted with a lovely little surprise. A gang of rough and tumble looking kids stood in the middle of the lobby surrounded by men with guns – lots and lots of guns. The gang all stood in various martial arts stances, ready to fight for their lives which would be very short lived. Martial arts didn't work well against guns…unless you're Hiei and can dodge a speeding bullet. These kids sure weren't anything close to a Hiei so Yusuke didn't see them being able to dodge any bullets anytime soon.

"Well, Yusuke to the rescue…again." Rolling his eyes Yusuke rubbed his fists and stretched his neck preparing to kick some ass, until he felt the barrel of a gun pushing into the back of his skull. "What the hell!"

"Turn around and I blow your brains out punk. This isn't your fight and I don't know who the hell you are, but now that you've seen this, you won't be getting out of here alive."

Yusuke attempted to slightly turn his head and look out of the corners of his eyes to see the rest of his team. Hiei was gone from his side and, as far as he could tell, he wasn't with the rest of them. Yusuke could see that Botan and Kuwabara were in the same situation he was. How had this asshole snuck up on him? Why hadn't Hiei warned them before running off? This was about to get messy and Yusuke was hoping that the gang of kids wouldn't get hurt in the process.

Yusuke slowly powered up a ball of energy in his hand, preparing to shoot of his Shotgun technique when the guns started to go off. He jumped in surprise when the gun the man behind him was holding went off next to his ear. Turning around, he saw Hiei standing over the dead human, blood dripping from his blade. Hiei had saved Yusuke's life by killing the man before the gun had gone off. Turning back around Yusuke saw all the other men dead and Kurama standing over some of them with his whip out. The two demons had taken out all the humans…but some of the kids had been shot in the process. From what Yusuke could see at least two were dead and several were injured, including their intended target that lay on the floor gripping her side.

*Hiei's POV*

After I had dispatched the man holding Yusuke hostage I moved over to Kurama who was currently trying to tend to the human we had come to capture. She was desperately gripping her side as if to keep her blood from flowing out but she was no crying. This surprised me. Don't human children normally cry when hurt, especially the women? This girl looked far from crying, she looked angry. As if she wanted all the men Kurama and I had killed to rise up again so she could murder them herself. She looked to her other gang members and tried to rise. Pushing Kurama's hands away she walked towards one of the dead boys. I noticed she had a strange glow about her, one that had not been there before; the glow seemed to focus around her hands. She kneeled to the ground before her fallen comrade and placed her hand over his heart. She looked as if she were in a trance and, as I watched her actions, her eyes flashed to pure white and a flash as if from the world's largest picture taker emitted from her. I closed my eyes for a split second but when I reopened them the two boys had been dead were groaning on the ground as if they had just woken from a deep sleep. The girl lay on the ground, unconscious or dead, I could not tell. She had the power to bring people back to life…no wonder Koenma wanted her; she'd be a valuable asset to Spirit World. It would also be an advantage for his job to make sure she did not use such a power.

"I have never seen such a thing in my life." Kurama had appeared next to him, having watched the whole scene himself. "I've seen people attempt resurrection with black magic but they have never succeeded. Only a god can bring someone back to life."

"Hn. I am not at all surprised that the child ruler wishes to have her in his possession. She is a treasure worth stealing indeed."

A grin spread across Kurama's face at what I had to add. Not surprising with him being such a notorious thief. Koenma would never allow him to get away with this bounty, though. I doubted anyone would.

*Normal POV*

"We'll need to call Koenma to have some clean up done. We can't leave all these bodies and these children will need their memories erased and changed. Koenma doesn't want them to know Rian ever existed." Botan frowned while pulling out her communicator in order to call Spirit World. She didn't like Koenma's plan but she wouldn't go against direct orders.

"Why would they have to forget her? That doesn't seem fair," Kuwabara, always the bleeding heart, whined.

"It's just the way it has to be Kuwabara." Stunned eyes turned to Yusuke, Kuwabara not understanding or believing he'd say such a thing. Kurama just shook his head at him, silently telling him to let it go. With a confused and somewhat pained look, Kuwabara nodded.

Hiei wandered over to the girl and poked her with his foot. "Hey!" Kuwabara yelled, "Don't kick her, you little moronic pipsqueak!"

"What did you say, you filthy human?" Hiei growled and moved his hand as if to pull out his katana again when Yusuke moved behind Kuwabara and slapped him on the back of the head. "You're next, Hiei, if you two don't shut the fuck up."

"I'd like to see you try, detective. Your hand would be gone before it got within three feet of my head."

Kuwabara just grumbled in the background, rubbing the sore spot on his head that he now had.

"Well, Koenma is sending a cleanup team for us. We need to grab the girl and bring her back to him. Let's head out boys!" Botan manifested her oar and the Tentai awaited the portal to open in front of her before running through it.

They got a kick out of Kuwabara who always tries to run as fast as he can when in actuality they can only move as fast as Botan and her oar; it comes with the whole energy bubble she creates in order to have them safely transported into Spirit World. They never will bother to tell Kuwabara though; it's too funny.

Before stepping through the portal Hiei decided he may as well be the one to carry the girl seeing how he was closest to her. Picking her up, Hiei cradled her bridal style in his arms, not looking at her face or even bothering to check to see if she's still alive. He could feel a heartbeat, that's all that mattered. For one brief second before stepping through the portal, while none of the other Tentai were looking, Hiei flicked his eyes to her face. 'Hn, looks like any other human girl.' Then he stepped through the portal, ready to hand her over and be done with this mundane mission.

**YYH**

The team arrived in Spirit World only to be told to wait. Koenma was supposedly in a meeting with his father, King Enma. Hiei had set Rian on the floor, leaning up against the wall. No one had bothered to check her besides Kurama who would let his eyes slip over to her now and then, as if to make sure she was still breathing. She seemed to be sleeping and he knew when she awoke she would be disoriented, confused, and would panic. He hoped Koenma had a plan to keep her calm. When Hiei had brought her in, Kurama had noticed her strange attire: for a young female human it was an interesting choice. She was dressed in a pinstriped suit, made obviously for a male, with a matching fedora. He also took notice of the gun strapped to her side which Hiei had removed from her person when they brought her in. Kurama couldn't fathom what had brought her to become the leader of a gang. She was fairly pretty, but had kind of boyish features. She had her hair cropped short with a spiky fringe that hung down to her right eye; it was midnight black, but Kurama could tell it wasn't her natural color. He guessed she must have a light shade of hair and it made her look like a foreigner so she dyed it. Kurama turned back to the clock on the wall; they had already been waiting an hour and no one was talking. Not having Yusuke and Kuwabara fighting was surprising enough but them not talking at all was odd.

Yusuke sat in a chair, staring into space. Despite popular belief, Yusuke did use his head sometimes and, this time, he was thinking about what Koenma wanted with the girl. He had said they would never have to deal with her after this. Did he plan to kill her? Why, because of her strange power? Yusuke could see how that would put Koenma's business in a slump, if she could bring people back to life. The way she had acted when she had done it back at that office building made Yusuke believe she had no idea she could do it and it was not a conscious thing on her part; it wouldn't be fair to kill her or imprison her if that was the case. Yusuke glared up at the clock. 'What the fuck is taking Koenma so damn long?' he wondered.

After an hour and fifteen minute wait the Tentai were getting restless. Kuwabara had taken to manifesting and dissipating his Spirit Sword over and over again, which in turn pissed off Hiei. When Kuwabara started pacing the room Hiei tripped him, making him fall flat on his face. "Hey! What was that for ya damn midget?"

Before Hiei could retort the door to Koenma's office burst open and in walked the child ruler in his teenage form. He had a troubled look on his face that worried Yusuke. He wasn't about to let Koenma or his damn father hurt this girl if she didn't know anything about her powers.

"I'm sorry to make you all wait so long. My father and I had business to discuss and it took longer than I expected." Hearing Koenma apologize had everyone's attention because Koenma never apologized for anything. "Thank you for bringing the girl, that is all." Koenma then pointed to George, his faithful ogre, who got the hint and went to retrieve the girl only to have Yusuke standing in his way with a very ugly and scary look on his face. Let's just say George backed up pretty damn quick.

"What are you going to do with her Koenma?"

"That is no concern of yours, Yusuke; you finished the mission and you may now return home." No one left, not even Hiei who always took the first chance he could to hightail it out of Spirit World.

"I want to fucking know where you're going to do with her, goddamnit! If you don't tell me I swear I will destroy this whole friggin' place!" To prove his point Yusuke started to power up his Spirit Gun.

"All right, all right! Calm down Yusuke, please. Just know that it wasn't my choice and I tried to change things but my father has given me direct orders." With a sigh and a sad shake of his head Koenma began to explain. "Rian is not only a gang lord but something else, something that no one has seen in thousands of years. She isn't a demon but she isn't human either."

"So what is she?" Kuwabara interrupted.

"She is a pure being; her soul cannot be tainted or blackened no matter what she does or how much hurt she is put through. She carries the power of a God but isn't one. We don't really know what she is just that she is unnatural and does not belong in any world."

"What is that supposed to mean? She's human, ain't she? Just a little different." Yusuke looked toward the girl for the first time since bringing her to spirit world and she didn't look like anything special. How could she not belong here?

"Yusuke…she must be eliminated. That is my father's orders and I must carry them out or I will be severely punished. Spirit World would go into chaos if something like her were allowed to exist. Bringing people back from that dead, even if it isn't their time to go, is not natural and should not be done."

"Are you kidding me? You can't kill her! She's just a kid!"

"She isn't any younger than you Yusuke and she's had a tough life. It might be better this way."

"Koenma…how can you say something like that?" Botan spoke up for the first time. She had tears in her eyes and was staring at Koenma in horror. Botan has always been loyal to him but this she could not believe.

"Botan it is for the best. You know I can't go against orders."

"But you've done so before, you ignorant fool. Why start following them now? Afraid of a few spankings are we, Koenma?"

"Hiei!" Kurama snapped, glaring at him to shut him up.

Koenma turned his head as if he had been slapped. Then, with determination and fire in his eyes, he looked up and gestured toward the gang to follow him. The Tentai watched as Koenma walked to the back wall, the one behind his desk, and dragged a finger down it. "What the hell is he doing now?" Yusuke rolled his eyes.

When Koenma reached the bottom of the wall lines began to glow in the shape of a door and that part of the wall disappeared opening up into a secret room. He gestured to Kuwabara to pick up the girl and then walked into the room, the Tentai followed after. When they were all in the opening disappeared again. The room they had entered was completely white, with no chairs or tables. It was just a small square room.

"This is what humans call a "Panic Room;" it's sort of a little safe house inside your home. It's sound proof and no one else knows about except me and George; and now you, of course. We can talk freely in here. The other room my father has bugged to listen in on my conversations."

"And what have you brought us in here to talk about Koenma?" Kurama took a seat on the floor, folding his legs neatly as if he were about to have tea.

"I want you to take Rian to Genkai's. Keep her there until I tell you it's safe and my father thinks she's dead. I don't want you to kill her. A power like hers would come in very handy for this group; Yusuke's already died three times."

"Hey! Like it was my fault!"

"I will open a portal to the bottom of Genkai's stairs right in this room; take her there immediately. Genkai has already been briefed as to why the girl will be staying with her. Yukina is ready and waiting to heal any of her injuries. Luckily Botan has stopped most of the bleeding already from her gunshot wound."

"Are we to stay with the girl also? To protect her in case Lord Enma does find out you have not dealt with her?"

"Yes Kurama, I want you guys to stay with her. All of you if possible. I'm sure Genkai can afford a few borders. Now go! Time is wasting and who knows when she'll wake up. When she does have Botan contact me and I'll be there to help explain things to her."

With a wave of his hand Koenma opened a portal and, instead of walking through it, the Tentai were sucked into it.

**YYH**

The team was deposited in a heap at the bottom of Genkai's large set of stairs. Hiei was the first up, brushing himself off and grumbling indignantly about stupid detectives and retarded godlings. Kurama rose as gracefully as he could from the bottom of the pile and Kuwabara jumped up with his arms still protectively holding onto Rian who didn't have a speck of dirt on her. Botan was still on the ground dazed because Yusuke had landed on her and still had his face in her lap. When Botan finally came to she slapped Yusuke upside the head with a shrill screech of "pervert." Yusuke was awoken with a start and a cry of, 'what the hell did you do that for?' And so the team started the long walk up to Genkai's temple. Kuwabara had shifted Rian so she was now on his back and he carried her as if she weighed nothing; there was still no real sign of life from her. Kurama was starting to suspect she may be in a coma and that would not bode well for them.

The team trudged along while Hiei flickered through the trees and soon they reached the top. Genkai and Yukina awaited them on the front porch of the temple. Yukina was waving happily at them and Kuwabara deposited Rian into Hiei's arms since he was closest to him and then ran to give Yukina an almost bone crushing hug. Hiei growled at not only being dumped with the damn girl again but also because the idiot was touching his sister.

Hiei felt a slight movement in his arms and looked down. With a soft groan and a flicker of her eyes, Rian awoke. She stared up at him with an almost dreamy look on her face. "I saw my future and you, sir, play a very large part in it."

"Excuse me?" But before Hiei could get an answer she was asleep once more. The rest of the team started at him in bewilderment.

"What the hell did she mean by that?" Yusuke asked Hiei.

"How the hell do you think I would know baka?"

And with that, Hiei literally tossed the girl at Yusuke, who barely managed to catch her. Kurama shook his head in disgust at the little fire demon before going to join Kuwabara in greeting Yukina.

"Well girl, you've got an interesting story waiting for you when you wake up. So you might want to hurry before we forget it, okay?" Yusuke grinned down at her.

He didn't know why but he felt a strange connection to this girl, almost as if she were family. 'Ha, the imouto that I will never have.'

Yusuke hefted her up more securely in his arms and then went to greet his grandma. Things were sure getting more and more interesting.

**YYH**

A/N: Well folks, here's chapter two. What did you think? Please review! I'd really appreciate some feedback on this. Also sorry this took so very long but I've been busy. I've got a job, I'm starting college, and everything is very hectic. I'll have the next chapter out much sooner though, I promise!

Thanks! Please read and review!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer - It's in the first chapter, so please read it there.

Author's Note: Hello everyone! So I came to notice that my page breaks are missing because the site is taking them off. Lovely, so now I need to find another way to show page breaks and time changes without them being removed. I didn't get many reviews last chapter, but I am faithful and will continue writing! Now, on to the story! Enjoy!

Atlas Shrugged – Chap. 3

The Tentai all sat in a group in Genkai's living room; Kurama and the girls were sipping tea. Yusuke, in the meantime, was scrupulously checking Rian for anymore wounds without having to take her clothes off even though Yukina kept assuring him that she was fully healed. Yusuke just couldn't figure out why she wasn't awake yet. They had been at Genkai's for hours now, they'd had the time to explain everything to her and - minus some bitching - she was willing to help them. They all had their own rooms set up in Genkai's big ass temple, including one for Rian when she awoke and was able to move in herself. Currently Yusuke had her on a bed roll in the middle of the living room. A cool breeze floated in through the open rice paper doors; the wind ruffled Rian's hair blowing pieces across her eyes. It wasn't long enough to really go anywhere but it must be annoying all the same. When no one was looking Yusuke pushed the pieces out of her eyes.

"So, what are we gunna do now?" Kuwabara practically whined as he flopped down on the floor. Long ago having given up flirting with Yukina after Hiei had almost chopped his lips off when he attempted to kiss her on the cheek.

"I don't friggen know Kuwabara, how bout you stop sticking your thumb up your ass and go do something with yourself instead of bugging me." Yusuke growled; he was in another foul mood. Rian hadn't awoken and Keiko wouldn't answer her damn phone the few times he'd tried to call from Genkai's land line.

"Screw you Urameshi! What did I do to you?"

"Nothing, but you're still damn annoying!"

As they argued Rian's eyes began to flicker, finally they opened and she lay their staring at the unfamiliar ceiling. She thought as hard as she could to remember where she was but for the life of her couldn't figure it out. The two boys next to her continued to bicker until it escalated into an all out brawl. Rian quickly sat up and moved away across the floor as fast as she could. She wasn't about to get the shit kicked out of her while she was still disoriented. Suddenly the fighting stopped and all eyes were on her. She knew then that she was in trouble, she had no idea who these people were and she didn't want to find out. Slowly she slid up the wall until she was standing, their eyes followed her every move like she was an extra interesting bug. The one with gelled back hair began to stand as if to come at her and that's when Rian took her chance, she bolted as fast as she could to the open sliding doors and dove through them. She rolled, landing in a crouch and leapt up to continue running when she slammed into a hard but extremely warm body. Hands wrapped around her upper arms pining her to the spot, not that she could have moved anyway. The glare in the boys eyes that looked down upon her had already froze her in place. They showed so much hatred that she wanted to curl up into a ball and cry on the spot. Rian knew she was going to be killed; these must be people from Gin Tama's business here to finish her off. They had waited for her to wake up so they could watch her true suffering; that must be the only reason she wasn't already dead.

Hiei glared down at the little human, the ungrateful bitch decided she would run so she could just get herself killed, either by that mob or Enma himself. Even though the detective had been the first one up Hiei was the fastest and he'd made it to her within a split second. He gripped her arms harder, knowing he was causing her pain and would probably leave bruises; he didn't care. He was angry, extremely so, and he couldn't quite figure out why. He shouldn't give a damn if she ran. What did it matter to him? It would be just one more human he wouldn't have to deal with ever again.

"Hiei!" He heard Kurama snap. Kurama could tell he was hurting her and so he let her go, but not before releasing her in a way that made her fall to the ground, her face in the dirt.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Kurama had reached them and Hiei couldn't imagine why he was snarling at him. So what if he had hurt the little human? It shouldn't matter to Kurama either. His human life had made him too damn soft.

"Hn." And with that Hiei flickered off.

"I can't believe he did that." Shaking his head Yusuke knelt down next to Rian. He placed a hand on her back only to have it slapped away. Rian glared up at him with the nastiest look he'd ever seen on a girl, she looked so angry and scared that Yusuke immediately felt sorry for her.

"Listen, you don't need to be scared. We aren't going to hurt you even though now that's going to be hard to believe." Yusuke offered her a hand up but she ignored it and stood on her own.

"Don't give me that bullshit. I know you work for Gin Tama, so why don't you just get it over with. Fucking kill me!" Yusuke sputtered at Rian's foul language, only him and Hiei usually talked like that.

"Rian, we aren't going to kill you. Something has happened and we need you to calm down and listen to what we have to say." Kurama, always the negotiator stepped in before Yusuke said something that would make her try to run again. Not that it wouldn't be easy for them to catch her…except if it was Kazuma running after her.

"I don't believe you. Where am I? I demand to know!" Rian's breathing suddenly hitched, "Where's the rest of my gang?"

"Listen, that doesn't matter right now. If you would sit down and listen we will explain everything. Perhaps you'd like a cup of tea?"

"I don't drink that shit." She snapped. It seemed this was going to be much more difficult than the team had hoped.

"Then we'd be more than happy to serve you something of your liking." Kurama bowed towards the door, an open invitation for her to enter the house and sit.

"I don't suppose I have a particular choice in this do I?" Rian stomped her bare feet as she walked towards the temple, just then noticing that they were in fact devoid of shoes but not caring. Finding a way to escape was much more important than her damned shoes. Rian didn't trust these people for a second; several of them looked like members of a gang so she would bet that they were Gin Tama's men. She needed to find out what had happened to her men, though, and if they were really going to tell her she wasn't going to risk running out without knowing.

As they all entered the temple again Yusuke noticed that Genkai still sat calmly drinking her cup of tea, her little legs folded beneath her. Yusuke glared at her to show he was not pleased for her non-action.

"Don't give me that look boy; I knew you'd get her back."

Yusuke just rolled his eyes before sitting down next to her. The old hag was going to get her ass kicked one of these days and he may just be the one to do it.

Kurama shuffled Rian over to a pillow and allowed her to sit down; he then turned to Yukina and asked her to make her a cup of whatever she would like. Yukina smiled kindly towards Rian but all she received in return was a cold stare. Clearing her throat Yukina asked Rian what she would like.

"Coffee if at all possible and I want it black with no sugar." Yukina rushed off with her order and returned only bare minutes later with a cup. She set it down in front of her, bowing like a good hostess, then stepped back and took her own seat. Rian didn't plan on drinking it at all but nursed the cup anyway, rubbing the palms of her hands around it. Botan leaned towards Yusuke, close to his ear so Rian wouldn't hear her.

"Listen, Koenma will be here in a minute, he said to wait for him before we start trying to explain things to her." Yusuke nodded in understanding but with the way Rian was looking at him he hoped Koenma would get his toddler ass here soon. A light knock announced the Koenma had arrived but was being discreet so he wouldn't scare the girl. Genkai snapped a clipped come in and Koenma attempted to dramatically enter the room. In the process he tripped over his cape which caused a snort to come out of Rian. She immediately covered up that she had even done it though and returned to glaring suspiciously at all of them.

"Ahem," Koenma cleared his throat, "where's Hiei?"

"If you're talking about that bastard who grabbed me he took off. He's lucky; I would have beaten the shit out of him otherwise." Rian now had the full brunt of her glare on teenage Koenma.

"Well I want him here. Kurama, call him please." Kurama nodded his head but didn't move. Rian stared at him like he had gone crazy but didn't point out that the guy hadn't bothered to move; so much for thinking that the cape wearing freak was their leader. As soon as she thought this the guy who had bruised her arms appeared in the doorway; a scowl that would kill kittens on his face and a look in his eyes as if he were ready to murder everyone in the room. Now that wouldn't surprise Rian in the least, he looked like a murderer, even though he was kind of short. Not that she should talk, she had to look up at him and he must only be about 5 feet and 5 inches; not including his oddly spiky hair.

"Thank you for coming Hiei, we may need you to help explain." Kurama smiled encouragingly at him and pointed that he should sit in the last available seat…right next to Rian. He ignored him and sat on one of Genkai's numerous windows instead, he was a bit far away from the group but Kurama knew he'd hear everything they had to say.

"Now, let us get down to business. Rian, my name is Koenma and I am going to help you with the best of my ability. We, as in my team, rescued you from Gin Tama's business building. When we brought you here you were injured and bleeding profusely but we were able to heal the worst of it. It may be sore for some time though." Rian rubbed her side noticing that in fact it was quite tender.

"I am going to tell you some things you are probably not going to believe but I need you to keep an open mind - it is all true and I have no reason to lie to you. So please, just calmly listen and don't ask any questions until I have finished." Yusuke thought Koenma was sounding like a particularly grumpy teacher but decided it best not to comment, Rian needed to hear what he had to say and Yusuke sure as hell didn't know how to tell her.

"When we showed up at that building there were many men holding guns at you, my team, these boys you see around you, dispatched them and was able to save you. Sadly some of your gang was lost in the process." Rian jumped up but with a gentle hand Yusuke pushed her back down.

"Please just listen, this is important." Rian nodded not caring that Yusuke could possibly be a threat to her, her gang was her family and she needed to know if they were alright.

"Even though you had been shot my team watched as you rose up and your hands and eyes start to glow white. You touched one of your fallen comrades and then collapsed into a semi-coma. That's when suddenly the men started to groan; you had somehow brought them all back to life. You brought three boys' souls back to their bodies; this is not possible for anyone short of a god. I'm sad to say that I was forced to have the boys' memories erased, not a single one of your gang members know you anymore, or even know that you existed. I gave them better lives and they will now go on to be respectable members of society and eventually successful. You are not to contact any of them in order to try and make them remember you. If you meet one on the street and strike up a friendly conversation, that's fine."

Rian's eyes now swam with tears and she felt so weak to be crying in front of these terrible people. She didn't believe a damn word out of this guy's mouth but just the thought that it may be true crushed her. Koenma stopped speaking for a moment, allowing Rian some time to let it sink in. When a minute had passed he decided to continue.

"After that was finished we brought you here in order to be healed and taken care of. You see, I am the son of King Enma, ruler of Spirit World and reigning god of Japan. He wants me to take your life because of your powers; they aren't natural but you had no idea you were even using them. It didn't seem fair to me that you should die for something unintentional. You are still an innocent and I would not allow him to do it. So I offered to do it for him and instead had you taken here where you will be safe and watched over until the time comes when my father thinks you are disposed of."

Rian shook her head in denial, this must be some strange dream or perhaps Gin Tama's men really had killed her and this was Hell. She couldn't believe what was being said, all her life strange things had happened to her but never this insane.

"In the meantime you will be working for Master Genkai while you stay here at her temple. In turn she will give you a roof over your head, food, a place to sleep, and you will be safe. Members of my team will be here at all times and you will never be alone. The first thing we're going to do while you stay here is buy you new clothes and other things you may need, I have entrusted Master Genkai with plenty of money in order to buy you these things. Now, I'm sure you have questions. You may ask them." He nodded towards her but Rian was stunned, speechless.

She once again shook her head, her eyes downcast, "Fuck you all."

"Excuse me?" Koenma asked, not quite hearing her.

"I said, fuck you all! I don't believe any of this! You're acting so nice and sympathetic but as soon as I woke up today I was attacked by that friggin' little bastard in the window over there. I hurt all over, my gang is missing, most likely dead, and you sit there telling me this bogus fucking story. Shove it up your ass dude I don't want to hear anymore and I have no damn questions because it's all bullshit!" Rian screamed in outrage. She was so angry she felt like she may burst to pieces.

"How about you shut your filthy mouth human. I don't want to hear your crying any longer, it's pathetic and it hurts my head." Hiei was once again glaring upon her with such distaste in his eyes that she almost jumped up and kicked the look right off his face.

"What the fuck is your problem? I haven't done shit to you but you attacked me!"

"You attacked her Hiei? How dare you touch her?" Koenma rose up onto his feet as if he'd be able to do anything to Hiei.

"She was trying to escape; I did what I had to." Even as he spoke his blood red eyes were still trained onto Rian. Finally Rian hung her head, not being able to stand the look any longer; Hiei smirked behind her back knowing he had won a small victory over her. Koenma turned back towards Rian, sitting once more, "Rian I know this is hard but it's all true. Would you like to see it all?"

"Excuse me?" She looked at him strangely but even so Koenma didn't wait for permission, he reached out and touched her forehead with the palm of his hand before she had time to move. Rian's eyes went blank and she stared off into space until the boys noticed images flashing across her eyes, they couldn't make out what they specifically were but they knew somehow that Koenma was showing her the whole ordeal. A few minutes later he let go of her head and Rian sagged as if a great weight had been lifted from her.

"It's all true isn't it? I felt it in those images, that there was no way it could possibly be a lie. As if there were emotions being played with the video. I don't understand how you did that but I get it now. I need to understand more though if you want me to stay here." Rian had always been a suspicious person but this Koenma was sincere and serious about everything. She knew in the bottom of her soul that it was all true. Goddamnit! Why did shit like this always happen to her? Nothing went right, nothing stayed the same, and everything always changed right under her feet. The world shifted without her knowing as if Atlas had shrugged his big shoulders to scratch an itch. Well damn you, Atlas; you've fucked up my life once again.

"Not all of you are human are you?" This stunned them into silence, obviously there had been hints in the video and Koenma had already told her that he was a demi-god.

"No, as you already know I am a god of Spirit World. Kurama here is a fox demon known as Youko Kurama. Yusuke is part demon also, a demon called a Mazoku, and Hiei is a fire demon." In turn Koenma pointed to each team member and then looked back to Rian to see her reaction. She was expressionless, as if she were trying to cope with it all by not feeling.

"What about those four?" Rian pointed at Genkai, Kuwabara, Botan, and Yukina.

"I'm one hundred percent human baby!" Kuwabara howled with a goofy grin on his face, Rian could already tell he was the village idiot.

"Yes well and Genkai here is human also, just very old." Genkai glared at him and kicked him under the table. Koenma howled in pain rubbing his ankle with an indignant expression.

"And those two?" Rian asked again to try and hurry this up.

"Yukina here is an ice apparition and Botan is a Ferry girl."

"Like with wings and shit? Those little sparkly bastards?"

Botan laughed, "No Rian, as in the women who travel souls back and forth between here and Spirit World."

"Oh, I knew that. Anyway, the only name I recognize here is Master Genkai's. Being that she's famous around these parts." Rian stood and respectfully bowed to her, "It's nice to meet you. Is it really true you're psychic?"

Genkai rolled her eyes, "I suppose you can think of it that way, yes."

"Rian, are there any other questions you may have?" Koenma asked her once more.

"Yes…how did you know about me in the first place?"

"You have a unique energy signature from your abilities and I was able to pick it up from Spirit World. I then sent my team to investigate and I'm glad I did, if I had not you would be dead right now and so would your gang."

"Why did they have to forget about me?"

"It was for their own good; don't you want them to have better lives?" Rian's eyes turned downward once more and a single tear dripped to the table, "Yes I want them to live better lives. I didn't want them to be in a gang but that's all they've ever known, the same with me."

"I understand that, but that part of their memories is now gone and replaced with better things. They have jobs or are going to school, they're happy for once." Rian nodded once again, still not looking up but she seemed to have stopped crying.

"I'm tired, may I go to bed?"

"Of course, Yukina will show you to the room we prepared for you while you were sleeping."

Yukina stood and held out her hand, Rian looked up upon the sweet girls face, noticed she also had red eyes like Hiei but they were not harsh in anyway; she reached up and grabbed Yukina's hand, feeling - for the first time - really safe. She followed her down a long hallway, and into a room with a solitary bed next to a window. The only other things in the room were a desk, dresser, and bed side table. It had wooden walls but there was nothing on them. At least it wasn't white, was all she could think. Yukina smiled at her and then bowed out the door, quietly sliding it shut behind her.

The room with the Tentai, Koenma, and Genkai was silent, wondering if Yukina would come back and say that Rian had once again tried to escape from her. Yukina wandered back into the room and smiled at them all, "She went right to bed as soon as I left the room, I heard her strip her clothes off and then climb under the blankets." They all sighed in relief knowing that Yukina's hearing was just as good as Hiei's.

"What are we going to do with her Koenma? She seemed to take it all in quite well but I know that can't be how she's really feeling." Genkai's rough voice was the only one brave enough to ask.

"You'll do as I asked; keep her safe, give her money and allow Botan and one of the boys to take her shopping for what she needs. Other than that, do what you see fit. I must return now before my father thinks something suspicious is going on, call me if there is an emergency." A portal opened behind him and then Koenma was gone.

As soon as he left a loud crash came from the direction of the room Genkai had chosen for Rian to stay in. It was followed by another and then another. The whole team got up and ran in that direction thinking she must be getting attacked. When they arrived at her room Yusuke threw open the door to find Rian standing amongst a pile of rubble that had once been the bedside table. Apparently she had punched it to bits as her hands were bleeding and there were splinters stuck in her knuckles.

"What the hell are you doing destroying my property?" Genkai shoved past Yusuke and Kuwabara who stood at the front.

"I'll buy you a new one." Rian mumbled.

She wasn't wearing much of anything, just the slacks from her suit and a wife beater that must have been underneath her dress shirt and jacket. She had suspenders up over her shoulders and the gun holster still strapped to her side even though she no longer had a gun to fill it with.

Genkai shook her head, "You'll have to work that off young lady. I plan on training you until your whole body breaks."

"What do you mean?" Rian finally turned around and Genkai was surprised to see hope in her eyes.

"I will train you as I did Yusuke here; I beat him until he was bloody and rundown. I shall do the same to you but also give Yusuke some of the pleasure of teaching you. He'll be more lenient then I, I'm sure, but that's okay. He knows what he's doing." She slapped Yusuke's back, making him yelp.

"You will train me to fight? I already know how old lady. I'll do whatever you ask though. I want to be able to kill that bastard Gin Tama and if what you teach me will allow me to do so then you can crush me for all I care."

Genkai nodded, "Then crush you I shall girl. Before then I will give you a week to recuperate from your previous injuries and also send you shopping to buy new clothes. You can't fight in a suit so be practical with your spending. Botan and Yusuke will take you later today if you wish. In the meantime get some rest but clean up this damn mess first!" With that Genkai turned and left.

After cleaning up her mess Rian had taken a nap. Three hours later, at midday, she awoke again. Her stomach rumbled loudly, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything since the evening before. The smell of food assaulted her nose and she groggily turned to see a tray of food set on the desk on the other side of the room. It was arranged in a way that made her feel like she was in a 5 star hotel and she immediately became embarrassed; Rian wasn't used to such treatment from anyone, she's always fended for herself even when her older brother was alive. He made her grow up strong and didn't allow her to whine or carry on like other children did. Rian was still thankful for the meal though and she knew it must be from Yukina. The girl was sweet and even though Rian was nothing like Yukina she could already tell she wanted to be her friend. Slipping out of bed in just her underwear and wife beater Rian moved over to the desk and sat in the chair there instead. Picking up the chopsticks set out for her Rian began to eat, finishing quickly. She'd return the tray to Yukina as soon as she dressed.

"I wish I could put on fresh clothes…" Rian mumbled as she stared down at her dirty dress pants, sighing she picked them up and slipped them on, along with the white dress shirt but she didn't bother with the jacket, it was too hot for that and she had no need to look professional now. Rian wondered where those people were and what they would do once she left the room. She still didn't trust them, especially that man Hiei. There was something wrong with him, something off. Rian was not easily scared so she decided she'd just hate him instead. No man should be able to put fear in her head like that and this pissed her off. What right did he have? He was nothing but a damn midget…though she had to admit a very muscular one.

Sliding the door quietly Rian exited the room, closing it carefully behind her. She padded quickly down the hall trying to be sneaky; she didn't really want a confrontation with any of them. She just wanted to return the tray to Yukina and go back to her room. "Ah, I see you're awake. Good, you're going out."

Rian jumped and almost dropped the tray to the floor, which would have broken all the dishes upon it. Turing she found Genkai standing behind her grinning, with a cigarette between her lips, smoke curling up to the ceiling. "You scared me old lady."

Genkai just kept grinning, blowing smoke towards her. "I'm sending you out shopping. Koenma had your apartment cleaned and everything was destroyed. You basically don't exist anymore. So you need clothes and whatever things girls your age need these days."

"I don't need much of anything besides fresh clothing. I'm not your typical girl."

"Yes, I've come to realize that. You're far from normal that's for sure."

"…What am I? Do you know?" Rian's eyes looked at her seriously, she didn't think she was anything but human but they seemed to think she was something special. She wanted to know what that something was.

"You're a human girl as far as we know. You just have some special abilities that normal humans don't have. That's why I want to train you; maybe you can be conscious while using them instead of knowing nothing about them."

"So you don't know then? I'll tell you; I'm human and that's it. I don't believe in this special powers bullshit."

"Whatever you want to think little girl." With that Genkai walked around her and proceeded to another room. Rian followed as there was nowhere else for her to go anyway. When she entered the room behind Genkai she found herself once again in the main living room and nothing seemed to have changed, all the boys were still there. Yukina was missing but she had a feeling that the green haired girl was in the kitchen once again making tea for everyone. Just as she thought this it was confirmed as the girl came out with a tray of cups for everyone, including hers which was the only one that had coffee in it.

"Oh, how nice of you Rian-chan, I could have gotten the tray for you." Yukina set the tea tray down and then took the other tray from Rian, who tried to protest saying she would wash the dishes but Yukina absolutely refused. Shuffling back to the kitchen Yukina was gone and Rian was once again left without a friendly face to make her feel any better. The blue haired girl sat on the floor smiling at her though and it was kind of freaking her out. Bubbly airheads weren't the type of people Rian would hang out with, let alone tolerate in her presence. Hoping that if she ignored her the girl would leave her be but Rian was once again mistaken as the blue haired chick jumped up and bowed, the large grin never leaving her face. Rian noticed that not only was her hair blue but her eyes were also pink. Ferry girls were strange creatures it seemed.

Botan rose from her bow, "Hi! I'm Botan, as you already know and I'll be taking you shopping today! It's going to be so much fun!"

Rian just stared at her in disbelief; fun? Shopping was just about the worst past time in the world, right up there with Golf.

"No, it's going to suck. I hate shopping."

"Aw, what kind of girl are you then?" Botan giggled.

"The boyish kind apparently." Rian was not amused and she went back to ignoring the annoying Botan. She sat down and picked up her cup of coffee, almost hoping it was in fact poisoned so she could escape this hell. She didn't pay any attention to Genkai either who was the person she sat next to. Instead of smoking Genkai was now sipping a cup of steaming tea. Rian saw out of the corner of her eye Genkai push an envelope towards her across the table.

"There's 80,000 yen, spend it wisely because that's all you're getting. Kurama and Botan will escort you shopping. You are never to go into town on your own, understand?" Rian just rolled her eyes, who did this hag think she was?

"Why is Kurama taking me? He's a boy, shopping isn't really an activity a male likes to do."

"Actually I rather enjoy it, I don't shop very often but I like fashion." Rian looked Kurama up and down and decided he must be gay. The guy had long magenta hair and a feminine face but he sure didn't seem to know much about fashion, he was dressed in some plain kaki dress pants and a white dress shirt. Rian shrugged at him not believing he'd want to go but maybe he'd have a better time than she would.

"When would you like to head out? I think perhaps as soon as you finish your coffee we could go. It will probably take a couple of hours and it's best to get it done sooner than later." Kurama suggested. Rian just nodded, she didn't really care when they went, if at all. She wanted the stuff from her apartment, her old clothes, not this charity act.

Rian sipped her coffee, actually liking the taste. Seems Yukina knew how to make a mean cup of Joe. She took her time trying to drag it out and hope that they'd all suffer from sudden memory loss and forget about shopping. She looked around the room noticing she had been wrong earlier - there was one person missing, Hiei.

"Where's that midget? Did he run away again?" Kuwabara snorted into his tea while Kurama gave him a disapproving look and Yusuke just right out laughed.

"Yeah that's what the shrimp does, if he doesn't want to be bothered he goes and hangs out in a tree or something. He's like a creepy homeless dude." Kuwabara started guffawing along with Yusuke instead of trying to be polite.

Rian decided these guys weren't much different from some of her gang members; she had at least one member like each one of these guys except Hiei. None of her team was mean like him or had that cruel, disgusted look in their eyes. Hiei thoroughly annoyed her; honestly he really had no right to treat her the way he did, the stupid bastard. Rian rubbed her shoulders where the finger shaped bruises still remained from earlier and it made her start to hate him even more. In her anger Rian downed the rest of her coffee and then realized in doing so she would now have to go shopping. Damn it all to hell, she really didn't want to go.

"Ah, I see that you've finished, shall we go then?" Kurama offered her a hand up which she ignored and the persistent bastard still offered her his arm, she also ignored this but the amused grin on his face only put her in a worse mood. They were all jackasses.

As they left Yusuke and Kuwabara started arguing over some show on the television they had been glued to and Rian watched amusedly as she walked out the door as Yusuke punched Kuwabara in the back of the head, making his face smash into the table and also his cup of tea. The cup shattered but Kuwabara's face was undamaged. Rian smirked as she shook her head, thinking of her second in command; god, how she would miss him especially.

After the long trek down Genkai's stairs the group caught a bus into the city. They were let off in the shopping district where you could find just about anything you could ever dream of. It was all colors, sounds and people which made Rian nervous. She almost immediately wanted to turn right back around and run back to the temple if she had to, but Kurama put a restraining hand on her shoulder and Botan grabbed her hand and started dragging her off into a shop with many frilly looking dresses. Before they had left Kurama had taken the money from her and Rian had the feeling he was a good haggler and would end up getting things for much cheaper than their original prices. Kurama winked at her as she looked behind her and tried pleading with her eyes for him to save her. Obviously the jackass wasn't going to but Rian could still hope.

When she was finally pulled into the shop Rian was almost blinded with the amount of pink there was. She had never worn pink in her life and she didn't plan on starting now no matter what these people said. Botan dragged her into the back of the store where her eye had caught something and surprisingly it was a section of dresses and other clothes that weren't frilly or extremely girly. Rian didn't wear dresses though and Botan had a snowballs chance in hell of getting her into one, she turned to tell her so but Botan had already grabbed several off the racks and was now dragging her towards a dressing room. Botan shoved the dresses into her arms and then shoved Rian into the dressing room.

"Listen Botan, I don't wear dresses so could we just forget this?" Rian called through the dressing room door.

A muffled, "Oh no you can't, you may need one or two for special occasions, so please just try them on. Kurama and I are waiting to see how they look so you need to come out and show us okay?"

Rian groaned. The only thing worse than trying them on was having to show them off. She stripped down to her bra and panties and picked up the first dress. It was a simple affair, not very low cut, and it had flowing tulle over the top with lace accents on the bottom. The dress was white and strapless, which displeased her but she put it on anyway. Looking at herself in the mirror she knew the dress would not work with her overly short hair but she opened the door to show Botan anyway.

"Oh! It looks lovely; I think we should buy this one! Try on the others quick, I can't wait to see more!"

Rian once again entered the dressing room with a scowl on her face; she peeled the dress off and kicked it into the corner of the tiny room. The next dress was all sequins and pearls. It was pretty but impractical. She put it on and opened the door again. Kurama looked her up and down and then shook his head, "This one doesn't seem to suit you."

Rian sighed in relief and then took that one off. She was nice enough to put this one back on the hanger seeing how it was going to go back onto the shelf. She picked up the next dress and stared. This one was beautiful; it was a baby doll and hung just below her knees. She slipped it on and looked at the details. A red ribbon went around the bust, the rest of the dress was black with tulle over the bottom making it pouf out but not to an absurd level. This one was by far her favorite and even though she hated dresses, she loved black. If she was going to be forced to own one it may as well be one of her favorite colors. She stepped out of the dressing room and heard applause as Kurama and Botan jokingly acted like she was a runway model.

They purchased the first and third dress, which Kurama got for a lot less then they should have been, just as Rian thought he would. The remaining shops consisted of jeans, shirts, and some other types of dress clothes, like the suits Rian liked to wear. The last shop was for fighting outfits, Kurama was the one to help her pick these out. They were all light weight sensible pants and shirts that were tight fitting but comfortable. He said they need to be tight so they wouldn't get in the way. After leaving this shop they stopped for an early supper but on their way back to the bus stop Rian walked by a weapons store. They sold everything from swords to guns but a handgun was the thing that caught Rian's eye.

"One of those won't save you from the things that are after you." Kurama had appeared beside her and had noticed what she was looking at. "Would you like to go in anyway? We have plenty of money left over if you'd like to buy a couple of weapons."

Rian entered the store with Kurama right behind her. She stopped at the case with the handguns but Kurama continued on to a display of daggers and swords. He lifted certain ones testing their weight and then picked out four daggers and a katana for her. Rian didn't think she'd ever have a need for the katana but the daggers she could use.

"May I help you?" The clerk behind the counter looked at her skeptically.

"Can I look at that handgun please?"

He was still giving her a dirty look but he took it out anyway and handed it to her. Rian pointed it, holding it with two hands then one, turning it in many different directions. The gun was a sleek black and looked like it was well made.

"I'll take it."

"You realize you need a permit for these things right?" Rian glared at him but took out her wallet flashing her permit at him including her ID. Rian knew how to drive thanks to Tenchi but didn't own a car nor did she plan on buying one.

"Fine, they seem to look real. That will be 17,000 yen." Rian looked towards Kurama who handed her the money she needed which she in turn handed to the clerk. He put the gun into a box along with the ammo she would need for it which had been added into the price. Taking the money from her he handed her the box. Rian moved aside so Kurama could make his purchases and when he finished he exited the store with one long box under his arm and a small one in a bag. Kurama and Rian carried most of the bags, Botan carried a few of Rian's but also several of the ones from shops she had bought things for herself at. Botan said she couldn't resist because she loved shopping so much, Rian pitied whoever married her.

By the time they had finished completely and made it back to the bus to be dropped off by Genkai's temple it was already dark and the stars shone brightly down on them. Rian counted off the few constellations she knew as the bus took its sweet time getting there. Kurama looked her up and down, noticing how unhappy she was. They would change that, he knew. Eventually she would be happy to be with the Tentai; they would train her and make her strong. Kurama had noticed the day they had brought her back to Genkai's that Rian had a strange pull about her, as if you couldn't help but like her. He knew Yusuke had already fallen under that spell and had done so willingly, a few times while she had been sleeping he had slipped and called her his imouto. Kurama had ignored it already understanding why he thought those things. Now Hiei on the other hand seemed to feel the exact opposite. He didn't like her and for whatever reason his anger escalated when she was around. Kurama had a feeling there was much more to it but he wouldn't find out until much later what it was. He grinned, whatever it was going to be…he knew it was going to be interesting.

The group arrived back at Genkai's stairs where Botan handed off the rest of Rian's things to Kurama saying she needed to get back to Spirit World and then hopped on her oar and left. Kurama wasn't happy to have to carry several more bags up Genkai's overly large flights of stairs so Rian offered to take them from him, they were her things. He just shook his head and like a gentlemen offered to take the ones she was already carrying so it would be easier for her to walk up the stairs. She glared at him and refused, she wasn't a baby or a frail little thing, she could make it up those stairs as well as anyone and she was determined to show him that a few extra pounds wouldn't bother her any. Sadly once she reached the top she was huffing and sweaty where as Kurama was just as prim and proper as he had been all day, damn him that bastard. When they entered the temple they were both greeted by the occupants of the room, being greeted as if she were welcome there or even their friend surprised Rian and she didn't know what to think of it. She just nodded in reply, asked Kurama for the rest of her bags and then retreated back to her designated room. Rian dropped the bags to the floor and pushed them to the side out of the way; she would deal with that in the morning. After walking around all day she was extremely sore - her side burned as if it were on fire and she was so tired she could drop. Which she did, right on top of the blankets with her clothes on and all, as soon as her eyes shut she was out. Her rest would not be peaceful though as a dream came to her filled with despair and hopelessness.

In her dream she saw Hiei, watched as he knelt and offered her a stone of red saying that it was more precious than any jewel she'd ever find. She looked at his face and laughed at the love she saw there, there was no way a man so full of hate could ever love anyone, let alone a hated human being. She refused the gem and turned him away, with a look of hatred now present in his eyes he threw the gem in the dirt, turned and ran. In her dream time seemed to pass quickly and days became months, and months became years and still Hiei didn't return to her. She regretted what she had done knowing that he must truly have meant what he said but what had been done could not be undone. She was lost in an abyss of darkness never to feel love again.

Rian woke with a start her breathing heavy and tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away hurriedly and then laughed at herself.

"How ridiculous was that dream? There's no way I could ever love him, I don't even know him. Why would I dream up such a thing?" Rian shook her head and lay back down but when she closed her eyes all she saw was him. It seemed Hiei wouldn't even allow her some rest; slowly she began to dislike him even more. Eventually this dislike would turn to hatred and then it would turn to pain. Rian had no idea but without Hiei, she wasn't going to survive.

Authors Note: So, how was that? A few more reviews this time would be nice, but I'm going to keep writing regardless. If you love the story you'll review though. Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: It's in the first chapter but no, I do not own YYH, just Rian and all the other characters that I've created for this story.

Many thanks goes out to my fabulous beta reader Ayane Jaganshi, she's great! Also to all the reviewers, I loved all of them!

Authors Note: So here's chapter four, amazed it's out so soon? Hope everyone likes this story so far, I'd really appreciate some more reviews though! Come on guys, I know you can do it! Also my page breaks still didn't work so I'm trying something else. When you see a YYH that's a page break/scene change, okay? Anyway, on with the story!

Atlas Shrugged- Chap. 4

**YYH**

The next morning Rian woke early, it had to be at least five and she had gotten hardly any sleep the night before. She didn't bother trying to fall back asleep because it would have been pointless. All she had done last night was toss and turn and that's all she would do now if she laid back down. The thoughts that ran through her head made her dizzy and no matter what she did to take her mind off him…them, she couldn't. Sighing, she rose from her bed in the new pair of pajamas she'd put on the night before; all they consisted of was a black tank-top and some grey sweat pants. Rian needed to track down some coffee ASAP because she wasn't going to be able to function without it. Hunting down the kitchen was going to be a chore in itself because Yukina always brought out the beverages or foods.

"Well, now would be the time to try to locate it; everyone should still be asleep."

Rian stealthily snuck from her room, not even bothering to close the door in fear that it would make unnecessary noise. On her tip toes, she made her way around the temple. She came to the living room where the group usually sat, ate, or watched TV and there in one of the windowsills was Hiei.

"Shit, of course I'd have to run into him, maybe if I just quietly turn around and leave he'll never even notice." Rian whispered this so quietly to herself she could barely hear it but Hiei's head jerked around to glare at her anyway. Rian's eyes widened in surprise, she didn't understand how he could have heard her.

"What are you doing here, human?" His glare never wavered and Rian could see his obvious distaste in his facial expression.

"I'm looking for the kitchen, what's it to you, asshole?" Rian snubbed him and began to do just as she said, ignoring him the whole time.

"Well you won't find it in that direction, baka."

"I am not a baka!" Rian rounded on him a glare in her eyes rivaling his own; he just smirked in amusement.

"You could have fooled me, onna." Hiei jumped down from the window and walked over to her, "The kitchen is this way." Rian couldn't believe he was bothering to show her the way.

"I can find it myself thank you!" And with that she went stomping away with Hiei's eyes burning into the back of her skull.

After looking into many rooms Rian finally found the kitchen only to discover that Yukina was already awake and making breakfast; the smell of good cooking filled Rian's senses and her stomach once again grumbled as if she hadn't eaten in a month.

"Ah! Rian-chan, you're awake quite early. Is something troubling you?" Kind red eyes and a smile looked in Rian's direction.

"No, I'm fine, just couldn't sleep I guess. What about you?"

"Oh, I'm always up this early. Like Hiei-san I am an early riser. Plus, I like to make breakfast for everyone. I try to be as much help as I can because, like you, Genkai-san is allowing me to stay here for nothing." Yukina turned back to preparing breakfast while humming some tune Rian had never heard.

Rian decided to just take a seat and watch Yukina cook; time passed quicker then she thought it had and soon Genkai had entered the kitchen already smoking a morning cigarette and looking for a cup of tea. Grabbing said cup of tea Genkai grunted a gruff "good morning" and then left to go sit in the other room. She wanted some damn peace and quiet before the other idiots woke up, or so she said.

"Did the whole group spend the night Yukina?"

"Hmm, I think just Yusuke-san and Kazuma-kun. Yusuke-san stays here often because he lives on his own and Kazuma-kun will most likely be in trouble with his sister Shizuru-san since he did not go home last night. You may meet her today; she's a very kind person." Yukina smiled until she had only slits for eyes and Rian doubted that this Shizuru person was very nice indeed.

Before Rian could ask where Kurama and Botan had gone, Yukina had laid a plate heaped with food in front of her. She set down a pair of chopsticks then bowed out and went to take Genkai her morning meal. Yukina was much too polite; Rian would have to toughen that girl up if she was to get anywhere in this world. She only saw the good in people when most of the time it was the bad you needed to look out for. Rian quickly ate her breakfast as she heard the sounds of yelling coming from a few rooms down. It seemed Yusuke and Kuwabara were now awake and Genkai was yelling something about Yusuke needing to do his morning exercises. Whatever those were, Rian didn't really want to find out – she had a feeling that Genkai's form of exercising was like torture to normal people. Rian continued to eat when the back door, which was in the kitchen, was opened. Hiei meandered in, his katana now strapped to his side and a look of complete annoyance on his face. He ignored Rian and went straight to the stove where Yukina had left out a plate that Rian had assumed was for Yukina herself. Hiei grabbed said plate and then sat on the kitchen counter to eat. Still ignoring her he quickly finished his breakfast, stood, and washed his plate in the sink then placed it on a rack to dry. He flitted out the open window instead of opening the door.

"He is the strangest person I've ever seen in my goddamn life."

"Who is Rian-chan?" Rian jumped at Yukina's voice, not realizing the latter had re-entered the kitchen.

"Oh, that weirdo Hiei."

"Hiei-san is quite kind; he's just a little rough around the edges. I assume he retrieved his breakfast?" Rian snorted at the kind comment, Hiei didn't deserve such praise. The man was an asshole. "Once you get to know him better, you will think differently Rian-chan. Just give him some time to get used to you. Hiei-san doesn't like newcomers."

Rian just shook her head and then made up an excuse about having to put yesterday's purchases away before escaping the kitchen. One more second of conversation about Hiei would have made her want to strangle the kind green haired girl.

Rian decided she may as well actually put away all her new clothing and, in the process of trying to find her room, once again got lost. She somehow found her way to a completely different room she'd never been in: a room with sparse furniture and no distinctive things on the walls to show that it belonged to anyone. Rian did notice that the bed was rumpled, though, so someone must have stayed there last night. Rian pushed the door open a little further only to have a sword placed at her neck. Her eyes widened in fear and she dared not turn her head knowing that the blade was awfully sharp and would inevitably cut her.

"What are you doing in my room, human?" Hiei shifted so the blade was pointed straight at Rian instead of from the side so he could look at her face. Her eyes widened even more but this time not in fear; they had widened with surprise and now they shrunk with anger.

"I suggest you remove your damn blade from my neck before I break your face."

"I highly doubt you will ever be able to lay one hit on me let alone 'break my face' so don't bother with idle threats." Rian went to move but Hiei only dug the blade in further; a small drop of blood leaked from her neck.

"How dare you! Let me go! I didn't realize this was your stupid bedroom! I should have known, though, just from the smell!" She spat. Hiei only laughed knowing full well that he bathed regularly and did not smell at all.

"You are the most foolish and childish human girl I have ever laid eyes on." Hiei removed his blade and stepped closer to her until their noses were almost touching.

"I suggest you never enter my space again without my permission, or I'll do worse than scratch you." Hiei then leaned down to her neck and ran his tongue over the spot he had cut open. Rian shivered violently and this only made him grin; until she smacked him across the face.

Hiei had not expected that at all and he stumbled back surprise written all over his face. She had not hurt him but he was amazed that she was able to hit him at all. Her smell had distracted him, she smelled different from normal humans, almost sweeter. While Hiei pondered this Rian took her chance and ran. Hiei didn't bother to follow: too stunned to care that she had left. This human girl made him feel strange. Growling at himself, Hiei fled through his window, planning on a long workout in the middle of Genkai's forest. Perhaps he'd meet some type of monster he could chop up to let out his frustrations.

**YYH**

Rian ran all the way back to her room having finally found the way even through her panic. She had hit him, right across the face! He was going to kill her! Rian dived into her bedroom and quickly slid the door closed behind her, there was no lock so she waited for the telltale sign that he had followed and planned to slice her throat. Nothing came but still Rian stood in a fighting stance prepared just in case, soon her breathing slowed and she calmed down considerably. She flopped to the floor finally realizing that Hiei wasn't going to waste his time chasing her around Genkai's temple. Rian then proceeded to laugh, "Ha! I did land a hit on you didn't I Mr. Almighty Hiei!"

Rian's grin didn't cease for the entire time she spent putting away her new clothes in the dresser Genkai had provided for her. She carefully folded them all, right down to every single pair of panties and socks. After putting all her things away, Rian turned to the bag that housed her gun and daggers; the box with the katana leaned up against the wall next to her bed. Rian removed the gun from its box and carefully took it apart, inspecting it for quality; she decided the shop keeper was a dumbass because it should have cost much more then 17,000 yen. Rian strapped her holster once again around her waist and then, before placing the gun inside it, filled it with ammo and made sure the safety was on before finally placing it in its rightful home by her side. Rian then took the daggers and hid one under her pillow while she placed the others in one of her dresser drawers. She had neglected to get holsters for them and hiding them on her person without them would most likely cut her. Rian didn't bother with the katana; Kurama may think she would have a use for it but he was mistaken. She had no need for a sword.

By the time Rian finished arranging her things and tidying her room it was already after twelve. She knew Yukina would soon be making lunch for them all and she didn't want to miss the girl's good cooking. When leaving her room Rian decided she would try to memorize the way back so she wouldn't have to search the whole temple again. When she reached the living room she stopped before entering. Hiding behind a corner, Rian listened to the voices in the room. Kurama was back and she heard Yusuke arguing with Genkai but no Kuwabara. Then a sentence caught her attention.

"Hiei, you need to be nicer to Rian. I could hear your thoughts of her all the way at the bottom of Genkai's stairs." Rian heard Hiei just grunt in reply to Kurama which then produced a sigh from said kitsune.

"And certainly please no more licking of her neck…or anywhere for that matter, without her permission." Rian then heard a sputter which belonged to Yusuke who seemed to be trying to yell at Hiei but couldn't get the words out coherently.

Then, "How dare you touch my imouto!"

"She isn't your damn sister baka detective!" Hiei snapped right back.

"Yeah, well you would know wouldn't you? How about you tell Yukina that little secret you've been hiding from her? I think by now she has the right to know."

"That is none of your goddamn business Urameshi and if I ever hear you speak of it again while she's in the same house I will kill you where you stand."

Rian decided now would be a better time than any to interrupt before poor Yusuke got himself killed. She didn't really know what he was talking about but it was none of her business either. Anything to do with Hiei wasn't her thing anyway – the spiky haired bastard was an annoyance and she wanted as little to do with him as possible. He had some balls to dare touch her let alone lick her friggin' neck but she decided from now on she'd just ignore him. She didn't have the time or energy to bother with petty squabbles with midgets. Entering the living room, Rian noticed that in fact Kuwabara was not there but Yusuke, Kurama, Genkai, and Hiei were all present. Genkai sat with a cup of tea as did Kurama. Yusuke was complaining about some training plan she had told him about but when she entered he stopped.

"Hey, grandma, how 'bout you go over the plan with her instead of me? It's not like I have to deal with your old ass anymore." Yusuke shoved his thumb in her direction looking at Genkai with a haughty, sarcastic look on his face. This only got him a quick slap to the head and a "nimrod" comment from Genkai.

Rian could only guess that Genkai had been going over a training plan for her with Yusuke. Rian could also guess that Yusuke wanted no part in being told how to train her when his turn arose; she could deal with that. She had a feeling that she would like Yusuke's own special brand of training much better then she would like Genkai's. Even as she thought about how her training would go her eyes roamed and where they stopped annoyed her to the point where she would not be in a good mood throughout all of lunch. Rian's cerulean blue eyes landed on Hiei who was ignoring the entire room and its conversation. He stared out the window as if longing to be outside but couldn't be – as if anything was stopping the little bastard. Rian further entered the room and took a seat at the table everyone sat around. She grunted at Kurama's greeting and also ignored Yusuke when he went to speak with her as she was in no mood to speak with anyone. The room had thus gone silent, not knowing what to say without somehow further upsetting her, when they heard yelling coming from outside.

"You are only to stay a couple of hours and then I want your ass home and at your damn desk studying until your brains fall out!" A female voice could be heard from some distance but it was progressively coming closer.

"But sis', if my brains fall out how would I pass the test anyway?"

"Kazuma, you're in high school now, figure that out for your damn self."

A woman with a cigarette hanging from her lips came through the door pulling Kuwabara by the ear, with him whining protests the whole time. She finally let him go but not before kicking him in the ass so he would fall on his face.

"Ouch! Sis', you're so mean!"

"Stop bitching, I'm only dropping you off but you better be home when I told you to be…or else." A wicked grin crossed her face making Kuwabara run and cower behind Yusuke who only shoved him away; Kuwabara ending up falling onto Rian, flattening her into the floor and knocking the wind out of her.

"Oi! See what you've done now Kazuma?"

"And how are you today Shizuru?"

"Oh, hi Kurama, I'm fine." She flashed a grin in his direction before pulling Kuwabara up and off Rian who lay panting on the floor.

"Sorry about that, my brother here's a real klutz." Shizuru offered Rian her hand while Kuwabara sat blubbering in the background continually apologizing to Rian for falling on her.

Rian took the woman's hand and was promptly pulled to her feet where Shizuru proceeded to pat her down as if removing dust from her clothes. Rian shook her off, not liking someone she didn't know touching her; Shizuru just rolled her eyes then turned to Genkai.

"So who's this chick anyway? I haven't seen her around before."

"This is Rian; she's sort of a new addition. Another fighter I get to beat on and shape into something better than they ever could be; basically just another pain in my ass."

"Okay then, well I've got to go shopping seeing how a certain someone eats all our food in a matter of days." She glared towards Kuwabara, "Make sure he gets home on time, he has a test to study for." Genkai just nodded her head and shooed Shizuru out.

In the mean time Rian decided to eat lunch as quickly as she could while no one was paying attention to her; she wanted to be alone now and also needed a shower badly. Gulping down the last of her rice Rian jumped up and raced from the room with the Tentai staring after her, she didn't bother to care. She felt constricted in there as if her breath would be stolen from her if she had remained any longer – not to mention her stomach hurt from where Kuwabara had landed on her. She could handle that pain but when she had fallen the bruises on her arms from Hiei had only hurt worse…they had been beginning to heal but now she had a new bruise on her right shoulder. Damn Kuwabara. Could she not go a day without someone in this house hurting her? Rian reached her room and started digging through her clothing. She pulled out a simple pair of jeans and a tight fitting black tank-top along with other essentials like panties and a bra, both of which were black, her favorite color. As she pulled these items out she laid them on her bed, got a towel from her closet and the toiletry kit she had bought. Now her only problem was finding a shower or bath. A soft knock sounded at her door and then there was Yukina smiling politely at her.

"I saw you run from the room and wanted to make sure you were alright? Did Kazuma-san falling on you hurt at all? I will be able to you heal you a bit if so."

"No, I'm fine thank you. I just wanted to take a shower…you wouldn't happen to know where that was would you?"

"You have a bathroom attached to your room; the door is kind of hidden though." Yukina walked to the wall at the other end of the room; if Rian hadn't been looking she wouldn't have noticed the thin lines that showed there was actually a door there. A small hole sufficed to open the door which Rian had mistaken as a knot in the wood before. Yukina swung the door open showing Rian into a traditional shower room, then bowed and showed herself out.

"Well this would have been nice to know about before now." Rian grumbled to herself; not that she blamed Yukina but Genkai could have told her, it was that old bats house.

Rian set her toiletries out, putting the soap near the tub, her tooth brush in the cabinet along with the toothpaste, and her hairbrush on the vanity. She had no makeup to put away as she never wore the stuff and never planned to. Shampoo and conditioner joined the soap next to the tub. Rian then ran the water making it hot to the point she almost couldn't stand it. Flinging the curtain closed, she stepped under the stream of water and still felt cold even with its heat. She let the water wash over her and with it the tears that she had finally let out; falling to her knees Rian cried for her lost comrades, her family, and herself.

**YYH**

Hiei stood outside Rian's bathroom door listening as she wept. He felt no pity for her but couldn't make himself leave the room. Slowly he swung open her door, a large amount of steam hit him but he didn't feel it as the heat didn't bother him, he then shut the door quietly behind him. He sat down against the wall, resting his katana on his shoulder and waited for her tears to stop. When Rian seemed to have finally calmed down he spoke, "Do you not want to be here, onna?"

He heard her jump and gasp in surprise but instead of yelling at him to get out or quickly dashing for her towel she only sighed.

"What's it to you? I didn't think you'd care either way."

"Hn, I don't particularly, you are right. I just can't stand when a woman cries, it is pathetic."

"Then get the fuck out Hiei." Rian didn't yell she only whispered in a broken voice which made Hiei cringe; how disgusting this human was, all she felt was self pity.

"I will not get the fuck out onna, you need to get over yourself and pull your goddamn act together. We don't have time to wait around for you. That man that is after you – Gintama was his name? He is a demon. An S class to be exact and if he finds you and you are defenseless you will surely die. Not that I give a damn either way."

Hiei's eyes flickered towards the shower. Rian had swung back the curtain and she stood in all her glory, not at all bothered by her nakedness in front of him. Hiei's blood boiled, his eyes widened and he hissed. In a flash Hiei had disappeared and Rian stood alone once again, nude with tear stains on her face.

**YYH**

For the rest of the afternoon Rian stayed in her room doing nothing but laying in bed staring at the ceiling or, at times, messing around with her handgun. Rian couldn't understand why Hiei had run so suddenly, she admitted that it had been brash on her part…but she was used to being able to do things like that with the guys. Her gang had treated her just like one of them and not once had they made a pass at her when she walked around her apartment nude or at least close to it. Rian guessed that she wouldn't be able to do such a thing here, and she had known that, but in the state she had been in she hadn't thought before throwing open the shower curtain. She had only wanted to give Hiei a piece of her mind and perhaps also ask some questions, such as what the hell an S class demon was?

In the end Rian chalked up Hiei's sudden disappearance with the fact that he greatly disliked her and had found her body disgusting to look at. Rian wouldn't admit that the thought had stung but she knew she wasn't particularly curvaceous or womanly looking. She had small breasts and no hips, that's why she could so easily pass as a boy if it weren't for her height. Rian had never been worried about her looks and she wouldn't be now; she wasn't interested in a relationship or being girly in any way and she planned on staying like that.

It was a hot night and Rian had shortly discarded her jeans after putting them on for a pair of spandex shorts. Kurama had bought her several pairs to put under her training pants, saying it would be breathable but protect her nether regions better. Rian had just rolled her eyes while Kurama had blushed like some little school girl. Rian stared out her one window as dinner came and went. Yukina had knocked on her door but Rian had ignored it and pretended to be asleep. Rian's eyes scanned the darkness outside as it fell heavier, the moon was so bright that it illuminated Genkai's forest and in a snap decision Rian decided she could not be in the temple for one more second. Pushing open her window Rian jumped out onto the ground, her bare feet hitting soft grass, and then she ran…straight into the forest.

**YYH**

The Tentai sat around the table finishing up dinner when Hiei's eyes snapped up and a look of anger crossed his face.

"For God's sake, what is your goddamn problem now Hiei?" Yusuke growled.

"Your human has run away again and into Genkai's forest no less."

"You've got to be kidding me, there's all kinds of creatures in there! She'll never make it out alive!" Yusuke jumped up to head out and get her but Kurama put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"What the hell's your deal man?" Kurama merely pointed to where Hiei had been sitting. Once again the little fire demon had disappeared.

"He's going to get her and you know Hiei will be able to easily kill anything in that forest." Yusuke finally sat down with a huff. Damn Kurama and his mind reading bullshit. In all actuality it had been Hiei to tell Kurama as Hiei was the only telepath in the group but Yusuke could care less. If Hiei hurt her instead of saving her Yusuke would not forgive him or Kurama. Yusuke ground his teeth; he wanted to go out there and make sure she was safe. Kurama only looked at him and shook his head. With another sigh Yusuke decided he'd trust Hiei with this one; the guy had saved his life numerous times.

**YYH**

Rian didn't stop running even as her bare feet hit roots and rocks. She tripped and fell several times, skinning her elbows and knees; she knew her feet would be bloody by the time she stopped. Rian didn't know how much time passed, it could have been minutes or hours, she just kept running. Eventually she broke through a dense group of trees and was forced to finally stop; in front of her was a pond with crystal clear water. How strange, she thought, that a pond should be so clean. She dipped her toes into it, noticed that the water was cool but not freezing, and waded out until her feet were no longer touching bottom. With moonlight filtering through the trees the pond looked like liquid silver and it calmed Rian down to her very core. With a sigh she flipped onto her back, spread out her arms and legs, and just floated. She slowly breathed in and out letting her body's tension loosen and the blood on her arms, legs and feet wash away. She stayed like that for awhile just floating through the water not knowing that soon her short lived peace would be interrupted.

Without Rian noticing, Hiei jumped down silently from the tree tops he had been running through. He had encountered a few of Genkai's strange creatures she kept in the forest and had dispatched them all with a quick slash of his sword; he didn't have time to waste on them. Having come to the clearing where he could smell that Rian's scent stopped, Hiei was trying to decide how best to approach her. He didn't feel like chasing some human girl through the forest nor did he feel like talking to her. His best bet would be to haul her off on his shoulder and carry her back to the temple. Stepping fully out into the clearing Hiei was momentarily distracted by what he saw. Rian floated upon the water like she weighed nothing and her movements were so graceful they were almost mesmerizing. Her short cropped hair was fanned out around her head and a smile of bliss was upon her face…for a moment Hiei thought she looked truly ethereal. Shaking off those foolish ideas, Hiei waded into the water; not bothering to take any of his clothing off, a swift blast of heat from his body would dry them anyway, and began to swim towards her. Rian still didn't notice him; how easily she could be attacked and killed if an enemy were to find her.

"Onna, you aren't safe out here." Hiei finally spoke to get her attention, he couldn't stand that she was so vulnerable to attack at that moment.

Rian jumped and swung around in the water so she was no longer floating but swimming. Hiei stood a mere couple of feet away from her, his torso submerged. Rian didn't know how or why she hadn't noticed him. She didn't speak just stared; for some reason the look on Hiei's face was different and she couldn't understand why. As she stared his face slowly morphed back into his usual look of annoyance.

"Onna, stop staring and let's go. This forest isn't safe for one such as you and if I have to carry you back I will."

"…I just wanted some peace," Rian whispered which caused Hiei to sigh.

He swam over to her, grabbed her hand under the water and started to drag her back to shore. He ignored the strange shock that ran up his arm and into his heart when he touched her and the fact that she had gasped when he had taken her hand. When Hiei reached the shore with her she stumbled and fell to her knee, that's when he noticed that she was bleeding in numerous places. A cut ran across her cheek, her knees were so skinned up that there wasn't much hint of skin left, the same with her elbows. Her feet were also bleeding and had several sharp pieces of wood stuck in them – she wouldn't be able to walk like that.

"I'll carry you back and then have Yukina take a look at your wounds."

"No, I can walk. I don't want you to touch me."

"I don't have time for your whining. Either I carry you or you can stay here and rot."

Rian ignored him and instead proceeded to start picking out the chips of wood stuck in her feet; each time she pulled one out she winced but never cried out. With a sigh and a grunt Hiei bent down and helped her pull the rest out, he then pulled off his shirt and ripped it into strips, these he used to tie around her elbows, knees and her feet. Dipping the last strip into the water he returned to her and swiftly swiped it across her cheek; she once again flinched because of his roughness but Hiei could care less. Tossing that strip aside he swung her up into his arms before she had time to protest, with the screeches of "put me down, you bastard" and "I hate you," Hiei ran through the forest. He reached the temple in record time and then dropped her onto Genkai's porch, with a final glare he flickered off.

Rian sat on the edge of the porch swinging her feet, Kurama soon came out to retrieve her after he had received a telepathic message from Hiei that she should be out there awaiting to be tended to.

"Are you ready to come in?" He sat next to her also hanging his feet off the side, though his reached the ground.

"Can I just gaze at the stars a little longer? They look so much prettier from here than down in the city." Kurama nodded his assent but went in to retrieve Yukina so she could heal Rian's wounds right away before they became infected. As Yukina's soft green glow of light surrounded Rian she could have sworn a shadow watched her, just to make sure she would be alright.

**YYH**

A/N: Okay, so there's the end of chapter four. I hope everyone enjoyed! Please give me some reviews, constructive criticism is always welcome also! Thank you. Once again, thank you all for the kind comments so far, I always enjoy reading them.

For those who may not know – Baka = Idiot/stupid, onna = a rude way to say woman, and imouto = little sister.

I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I will write as much as I can with my limited time. Until next time – The Crazi Greek.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, I do own Rian. Just a refresher everyone.

Author's Note: I'm trying to bang out chapters here because I want to get the actual plot in this story rolling, the plot isn't just Hiei and Rian, it's more but I'm not giving anything away. I hope you all read and review but most of all enjoy! I'm also sorry this took so darn long, please forgive me!

Once again thanks goes out to Ayane Jaganshi, my amazing beta-reader and to everyone who has read and reviewed this story.

Atlas Shrugged – Chap. 5

**YYH**

After Yukina had healed all Rian's new wounds she felt much better. Rian's side no longer hurt and, as an added bonus, her bruises from Hiei and Kuwabara were also gone. The only downfall was that the gunshot had left a nasty scar on her side that spanned from her stomach to her back and Rian would unconsciously rub it as if she could get it off. Three days had passed since the night Rian had run through the forest and no one had seen hide nor hair of Hiei in those three days. Rian was glad because she didn't want to have to deal with him any more than she needed to. She was still pissed that he had hauled her through the forest like some damsel in distress. So what if her feet had been cut up and her knees were skinned? She was a tough chick; she could have made it out of there on her own. She was the only one who thought so, though, and had received a lecture from Yusuke (who mostly just yelled), Kurama, and Genkai about not going in there until she was strong enough – apparently there were monsters living in her forest. Rian hadn't known that and had then felt extremely lucky not to have encountered any on her little jaunt through grandma's forest.

Rian had two days left of the allotted time Genkai had allowed her to rest. She didn't want to rest anymore but Genkai refused to start training her early. Genkai's only reason had been that she didn't want to rush her into anything she wouldn't be able to handle. Rian scoffed and promptly told the old hag where she could stuff it. This had made Yusuke laugh and slap her on the back like she was his best friend; she had then punched him in the face for daring to touch her…this got Kuwabara going which started a brawl between him and Yusuke. After finally breaking the boys up Yukina had reminded Kuwabara that he needed to head home or Shizuru would be very angry. Saying his goodbyes he had quickly left and Rian had been without a source of amusement and soon after, she left to go to bed.

Now, three days later, Rian was starting to wonder where the hell Hiei had gone and that when he came back she was going to punch the punk for making her worry about him even though she hated his ass. The guys all assured her that he did this from time to time and would return in the same condition he had left in. Rian thought this to be a sad thing; she wanted the little bastard to come back with a black eye or something. She shouldn't have spoken of the devil for said devil had appeared and for an hour now Rian had been left alone in the living room with him. Yukina and Genkai had gone to run errands because these boys ate her out of house and home, Yusuke had gone to track down some chick named Keiko because she wouldn't talk to him, Kuwabara had been forced to stay home because of some big test, and Kurama had gone to visit his mother. In reluctance Hiei had agreed to stay and watch her while everyone was out, like she was some child who couldn't take care of herself. They hadn't spoken a word for the whole hour and the television had nothing good on so Rian had continuously flipped through the channels. This had caused Hiei to steal the remote from her and chuck it out the window.

"You know Genkai's gunna be pissed if you broke her television remote."

"Like I give a shit what the old hag thinks."

For another ten minutes that was the only form of conversation they had until Rian got so bored and restless she couldn't stand it anymore. She jumped up and walked over to the window he sat in. Hiei stared at her warily like she was going to jump him or something, she smiled at him even though he could tell it wasn't anywhere near genuine and then leaned in. Hiei flinched away from her not liking that she was so close and Rian pouted.

"Am I really that disgusting to you?"

"All humans disgust me but you especially."

"I hate your guts you asshole!"

Rian lunged at him as if she would tackle him and all she ended up doing was slamming her forehead into the window, luckily not breaking it. She turned to look for him, her eyes watering and rubbing the bruise she knew was already forming on her head. Before she could find him, though, he had her pinned to the floor with his foot on her lower back, keeping her there, with her arms twisted behind her.

Hiei leaned forward until he was close to her ear, "I move much faster than you. Did you honestly think you'd be able to catch me?" Hiei chuckled and then released her arms roughly.

Stepping off her back, he was surprised when she flipped over and grabbed his foot, and though he could have easily broken her hold, he allowed her to have some fun. She tugged hard on his ankle and Hiei pretended to fall over, but the way he fell wasn't what she had been planning. He instead fell on top of her, their chests pressed together and noses almost touching. Hiei breathed in her scent; it was sweet and intoxicating and made him want to lick her from head to toe. Hiei was no stranger to sexual antics but this was different – he shouldn't want to do anything with a human, let alone lick one. Disgusted, he jumped off her and Rian just remained on the floor stunned. This was twice now that he had done something like this to her and her heart raced. Hiei noticed the faint blush painting her cheeks and smirked in satisfaction…this got him a kick to the knee which actually stung. Growling, he went to kick her back when he noticed something strange.

Looking closer he saw that the roots of her hair were growing in and they weren't black…but almost impossibly blonde. Leaning down he pushed the black strands away and held Rian down as she protested. With a laugh, Hiei released her.

"You're a foreigner aren't you?" With his comment Rian grabbed towards the top of her head finally realizing what it was he had been looking at so intently.

"No, goddamnit! I was born and raised here in Japan…my hair is just different is all."

"You shouldn't dye it; you look like a male as it is." Hiei insulted her.

"Fuck you asshole, I'll dye it all I want! I don't want to look all girly anyway!" Rian turned her nose up into the air and proceeded to ignore him for the rest of the time they were together.

Her silence only amused Hiei who didn't want to talk to her anyway. As she ignored him, Hiei took this time to study her. She was wearing all black, the same as him, but what she wore was skimpy; tight shorts and a black tank-top that showed the barest bit of cleavage, not that she had much to begin with. Her hair had obviously gotten longer because the roots were showing; the blonde actually surprised him. Unbeknownst to Rian, Hiei's Jagan began to glow beneath his bandana; an untrained girl such as her would never notice him intruding a bit into her mind. Projecting his power towards her, Hiei touched the bare threshold of her mind and was suddenly powerfully and painfully blasted back out.

"Augh!" Hiei grabbed at his head, his fingers digging into the Jagan in an attempt to stop the pain. Blood trickled down towards his lips.

Rian had jumped in surprise and turned to see what his problem was when she noticed he was bleeding. She immediately ran to his side and grabbed at his hand to remove it and see what was wrong. Hiei slapped it away harshly, growling like an animal and baring his fangs at her. Rian didn't back away in fear like he had hoped; instead she just rolled her eyes and went for his hand again; this time she succeeded in pulling it away from his forehead.

"Listen, I don't know what you just did to yourself but you're bleeding all over the place. Let me clean you up."

Hiei continued to growl at her, moving his head every time she reached to remove his bandana.

"Oh, come on Hiei! Fine, you can bleed to death for all I care!" With her largest huff ever Rian went and sat on the couch, completely ignoring him. When Hiei was sure she would no longer turn to look at him he moved over towards the window and, using it as a mirror, peeled his bandana from his blood-soaked Jagan Eye. Hiei went to blink it open to see what damage had been done but the fading light in the sky was too much for it; cringing, he quickly closed it. Apparently, it had become very light sensitive – the bleeding had thankfully stopped but it still hurt like a bitch. Refocusing his eyes, Hiei noticed with stunned eyes that Rian was once again watching him and seemed to be in shock at what she had seen. Flickering to her, Hiei grabbed her around the neck and with eyes that could scare away the most horrible demon he spoke, "How much did you see?" It came as a low hiss.

Rian tried to speak but with his hand around her wind pipe she could release only squeaks of sound. Hiei, realizing he wouldn't get an answer that way, loosened his hold. Taking a breath in, Rian proceeded to answer him, "I saw that freaky fucking eye in the middle of your head. Do all demons have those or are you just that special, freak?"

With a fierce growl Hiei lifted her from the coach and threw her over it, she landed hard on the wooden floor, the breath knocked out of her. She curled into a ball to try to recover herself. Hiei stalked over to her and his form loomed above her head. "I am just that special, you stupid bitch."

With one last swift kick to her side Hiei left her bruised and battered on Genkai's floor. He hoped someone would show up and murder her while she was down. How dare a human girl speak to him in such a way; he should have sliced her in half. With one last glare towards Genkai's temple, Hiei fled and wouldn't return for quite some time.

**YYH**

A couple hours later the boys met Genkai and Yukina at the bottom of her temple steps. They proceeded to walk up together when Yusuke felt a strong energy up ahead.

"Guys, I don't feel Hiei's aura in any of it. He could be dead, Rian's in trouble!"

The boys sprinted up the steps followed closely by Genkai who wasn't about to let her temple get destroyed. Yusuke was the first to reach the top and he didn't stop to wait for the others as he barged into the temple. Heat hit him full force in the face and that's when Yusuke realized that the temple was on fire. The living room was up in flames but luckily it hadn't spread any farther. He searched the room for Rian and saw a small black ball curled up in the middle of the floor. Yusuke instinctively knew that it wasn't Hiei and, fighting the flames, he jumped towards her. He felt a lick of flame burn his cheek but ignored it in favor of grabbing Rian and hauling ass out of there. Yukina took his place as she used her powerful ice powers to dampen and then finally extinguish the flames altogether. Even with Yukina's best efforts the whole room was charred beyond recognition; the ceiling and floor would need to be repaired and the furniture replaced. Yusuke paid no attention to this at that moment; he was more worried about Rian and the fact that she didn't seem to be breathing.

"Rian, come on! Rian! Can you hear me? Rian…"

His voice trailed away as Rian fully succumbed to unconsciousness and drifted away. In her mind things had changed; she saw the light of bright white flames and even as a voice of some kind called her towards them she refused to go. Unlike most people who would willingly walk towards the light or have to fight against it, she did neither. She knew what she wanted and being free wasn't one of them; she would be free once she had gotten her revenge against the people who had done her wrong. Until then she would walk towards the darkness standing opposite from the bright flames and see where that would lead her, if it brought her towards hell then that would be where she belonged, if she couldn't enact revenge for her comrades she deserved to be in hell. Rian walked on and on when eventually a faint noise came to her, as she drew closer to it she could make out that it was a voice calling her name and said voice was attached to a body. Finally she reached the person who she instinctually knew would be Hiei, his eyes were downcast and he wouldn't look her in the eye.

"I am so sorry for leaving you there all alone. I should have known better."

"It's all right; I don't blame you for it. It was my own weakness that condemned me in the end."

"You have almost died because of me. I feel like a fool."

"This is just a dream Hiei, it doesn't really matter so don't bother."

"This is no dream Rian; I am in your mind. In this moment of your weakness I was able to bypass your mental barriers. Do not fear, I shall not continue on any farther. I will not intrude on your personal thoughts."

Rian realized that his voice echoed around them as if he truly was in her head. Rian just laughed realizing she'd never know if it was true or not and she didn't care either way. Hearing Hiei apologize would stay with her forever, even if it was all in her head. Hearing her laugh made Hiei finally look up and the smile on her face stunned him. Grabbing her hand he pulled her towards him and with his thumb he lifted her chin so she would look up at him. Red eyes scorched her to her very soul and when he leaned down to lightly place his firm lips upon hers; fire burned through her blood. Slowly the pressure on her mouth started to soften and as Rian opened her eyes she saw Hiei was fading away even while he still kissed her. Finally he was gone completely and Rian was left alone once again locked in her own mind.

**YYH**

"Genkai, she's not fucking breathing!" Yusuke was panicking, he didn't know mouth to mouth and Yukina couldn't make someone breathe again.

"Move dimwit!" Genkai shoved Yusuke out of the way and started to build spirit energy into her hands. In what felt like forever the ball of energy was finally complete and in one swift motion Genkai slammed the blue orb into Rian's body. A breath was sucked forcefully into her lungs and her eyes shot open so wide Yusuke was starting to think they would pop from their sockets. Her chest had expanded to its fullest when the breath whooshed out of her lungs. She was once again breathing but it was harsh and she coughed every now and then.

"What….happened…?" Rian's voice was raspy and sounded like it hadn't been used in years and even saying those couple of words took a lot out of her.

Kneeling down Kurama came to her level, "That's what we'd like to know but how about we get you inside and put a hot cup of tea into you." Slinging her arm over his shoulders Kurama hefted her up and helped her walk towards a different part of the temple.

When the team entered the room Rian realized she hadn't been in it before, it was made of stone and had many old artifacts and antiques around the walls and floors. The only bits of furniture there were was a low table and cushions to sit upon. The room felt cold but after the heat of the fire Rian had no problems with that. Kurama sat her down onto a cushion and then went to help Yukina make tea for everyone. Yusuke hovered over Rian protectively as if he were worried that she may collapse again. Rian grabbed his hand and pulled him down next to her just to get him to stop pacing. She noticed the he had a burn on his cheek that was so bad it had turned black; if Yukina didn't heal it quickly it would leave a scar and mar his pretty boy face. Rian smirked at the thought making Yusuke look at her oddly. All she did in return was absentmindedly tap her own cheek. Her actions made Yusuke grab at his cheek and then yelp in pain, Rian let out a wheezing laugh and Yusuke just smiled at her, glad that she was trying to make the best of the situation. Yukina and Kurama returned shortly after with the cups of tea and distributed them out to everyone. Rian took a tentative sip even though she didn't like tea; the hot liquid rushed down her throat, soothing it to the point where she could finally talk again. She sighed in relief that the itchy burning feeling was finally gone.

"I put some medicinal herbs into your tea to better sooth your throat, I hope that's alright?" Kurama nodded towards her cup.

"I actually think it tastes better than it would normally."

"That's odd; normally all I hear from the rest of the team is complaints about my horrid plants and their awful scents and flavors."

"Well, I'm an odd person so I suppose it fits."

"Enough idle chit chat, tell us what happened girl," Genkai barked.

Rian rolled her eyes but spoke anyway, "I was knocked out before the place was lit on fire, I don't know who did it. At some point I awoke with the flames already blazing around me and could see dark shapes moving around the room but couldn't make out any distinct features; shortly after I once again passed out from the smoke."

"Why were you already knocked out? Did someone attack you before hand?" Yusuke demanded.

"No…well yes, but it was my own fault and I don't want any of you to get angry!"

"Hell yeah I'm going to get angry, I'm pissed already! Who the hell touched you?"

"Well…It was Hiei, but like I said it was my own fault. We got into a fight and I lost, end of story."

"Excuse me? That's it, I'm gunna kill that little twerp! I'll murder him the second I see him; how dare he touch you?"

"Yusuke, please allow her to explain what she did to provoke him in such a manner. I'm sure he wouldn't have done so otherwise, Hiei is normally an honorable man."

"Honorable? The little bastard's a demon thief, no offence to you Kurama, but he is!"

"Yusuke shut the hell up and let me talk okay!" Yusuke immediately zipped his lips at Rian's command.

"It was my fault just like Kurama said. I saw that…eye thing on his forehead and I kind of freaked out. I said some things that seriously pissed him off and I deserved what I got. He left before the attack happened so he had no idea."

"He left? HE LEFT? After we specifically told him to watch over you, he just up and leaves?"

"I told you goddamnit, I pissed him off and he obviously needed some damn space, so let up about it!"

"Why are you defending him? I thought you hated his guts!"

"I do but it still wasn't his fault and you shouldn't blame him, so just drop it alright!"

Yusuke went to protest some more when Genkai held up her hand to silence him, "That's enough Yusuke. You have both stated your points. Rian, Koenma will be informed of Hiei's desertion and will be punished accordingly because, upset at you or not, he should have used his better judgment and at least stayed nearby. Yusuke, Rian is right so I'll make sure he's not punished too severely. Also, Rian, you start your training bright and early tomorrow morning. No more waiting. Kurama, I want you to get Kuwabara up here and explain to Shizuru that it is urgent and he is needed for a couple of weeks at least."

"Right, I'll go call them now." Getting up, Kurama jogged from the room to find a phone.

"You boys will start fixing my damn living room while I start Rian's preliminary training. When that's finished Yusuke will take over and then whoever else wishes to add to her knowledge. Understood?"

"Hai!" Chorused from the two of them and Yukina at that time bid it safe to finally heal Yusuke's cheek.

**YHH**

Later that evening Yusuke was still fuming over the fact that Hiei had run away and still hadn't shown up so Yusuke could give him a thorough ass kicking. Kuwabara had shown though and was beaming even with the bad news he had received. He was happy everyone was safe but was even happier because he passed his high school entrance exams which had been the big test he had been studying for. He may not have gotten a super high score but he got a good enough one that would allow him to get into some good high schools, if not fancy ones. His sister was proud of him and that's all that really mattered, so starting next school year Kazuma Kuwabara would be an official high school first year. Thanks to this he was allowed to stay with Genkai as long as he wanted with the stipulation that he checked in as often as he could.

Botan had also shown up for a quick chat with Genkai about what was going on in the Spirit World. From what little Rian had heard it seemed that there had been a strange influx of natural deaths and that's why Botan, as a ferry girl, had been so busy and unable to come visit them sooner. Even then she couldn't stay long as Koenma had said it was urgent that she return. Genkai promised to look into this strange phenomenon and see if there were any supernatural or demonic reasons for it. Of course besides doing some research she pawned off the actual foot work on Yusuke who, believe it or not, gladly accepted because he was sick and tired of being cooped up inside all day. He wanted to take Rian with him to "show her the ropes" as it were, but Genkai forbid him after her ordeal yesterday. Plus she would begin training bright and early tomorrow morning and would continue to do so throughout the day. If Genkai was satisfied with her training she would be allowed a short break for lunch and then work until supper time when she would finally be allowed a true rest. Rian took this all in stride knowing that in the future it would help her reach her goal of destroying Gintama and his whole band of wretched creatures. Kurama had noticed her look of determination and had promptly told her where to stuff the smirk, but not so rudely of course. He told her that going into Master Genkai's training thinking it would be easy or not a huge strain on her body would be foolish as it would only make her hurt worse in the end. This really brought to light for Rian that Genkai's promise to beat her down until she couldn't walk was nothing but the truth and so she left the Tentai to go prepare herself for tomorrow.

Rian sat upon her bed and tried to get herself into the right mind frame to be ready for the morning to come but she had no such luck. Her brain kept turning back to Hiei and the anger she had seen in his eyes. She remembered the dream while she was unconscious and knew now that it was just that, a dream. Hiei would never act like that in real life, she must have been delusional. Even though she had only known the Tentai for such a short span of time she felt connected to each and every one of them, like some pull she couldn't really explain. They reminded her so much of her old family and she just wanted that back again. Maybe that's why she had trusted them almost immediately, why she still trusts them now even though she shouldn't. She wanted a family to call her own, was that so awful? After Tenchi died Rian had lost everything, sure she had the boys from the Devil's Advocates, but that wasn't the same as having a god honest family. She loved them just the same though and still did, that would never change. 'If I could turn back time, would I do things differently? Could I have made those boys live a better life if I hadn't listened to Tenchi and taken over the gang?' Rian didn't know, but she'd like to think that her brother wouldn't have led her astray on purpose. She didn't know if Tenchi had dealings with Gintama because when her brother had been alive Rian hadn't been allowed to associate with the gang on "business" days. Tenchi would even pretend he didn't know her if need be in order to keep her safe. He would always tell her that it was better that way but all his careful protection had been ruined anyway as she ended up becoming the leader upon his orders. 'Take care of the boys,' he had said. Well what a fine job she had done, Rian thought with sarcasm.

She shook her head to clear away those thoughts which she knew would eventually bring pain to her heart and tears to her eyes. Instead Rian lay upon her bed, closed her cerulean eyes, and fell fast asleep.

**YYH**

It was only four in the morning when Rian was rudely awoken with a cold bucket of water dumped onto her head. With a screech she jumped from her bed dripping water in her wake.

"Let's go kid; you've got a long day ahead of you. I'll allow you to eat a small breakfast and then I want you out front with me, understand?"

"Yeah, yeah old lady," Rian grumbled, flipping her wet fringe from her eyes.

Rian made her way to the kitchen where she munched on some toast and eggs, which Genkai said would be a good source of protein so she could build up her muscles. She was to eat eggs every morning whether she liked it or not. Groaning she gulped down what was left of her breakfast, filled up a jug of water upon Genkai's request and then followed her out front. It was still dark out but apparently that didn't matter to the old woman.

"We'll start with the basics of hand to hand combat. After you have mastered all of those techniques you can move onto small weapons. Eventually I'd like you to learn how to use that special energy of yours, but until we can figure out a way for you to be conscious while doing so we won't worry about it."

"I know how to fight ya know." Rian grumbled.

"You know how to fight like a street urchin, which has gotten you through many scrapes I'm sure, but that won't be good enough for the dangers you now face. Take your stance and we shall begin."

Rian moved slightly to the side, pulling her arms up and balling her hands into fists. She angled one foot behind her and then the other in front so if she were kicked or hit she wouldn't easily fall over. Genkai moved around to inspect her stance and kicked at her feet a bit to put them in the place she desired, which would keep her most balanced. She then proceeded to make Rian lift her arms a little higher so she could more easily block an attack. After she was done, Genkai took a stance of her own and, putting a cork on any spirit energy that may leak through, ran at Rian. She threw a swift punch towards her face which Rian blocked. Normally she wouldn't have been able to even see Genkai's hands move but, just for today, Genkai would take it slow and gauge Rian's abilities. Rian retaliated by throwing a round house kick of her own which Genkai easily blocked with her forearm then shoved Rian's leg to the side and, taking the opening she had created, hit Rian hard in the gut. Surprisingly, Rian didn't double over as Genkai had suspected she would. Even though she was cringing, Rian swung right back at the old lady but still didn't manage to hit her. This time Genkai blocked her punch by grabbing her fist.

Their mock fighting continued until well after the boys had awoken. For awhile they sat outside and watched from the porch which made Rian feel self conscious; thanks to this, Genkai was able to drop kick her and Rian landed on her back hard, nearly as hard as the day Hiei had thrown her.

"Get up girl; I'm not nearly finished with you yet."

With a groan Rian rose from the ground and proceeded to allow Genkai to beat her some more. Sweat dripped down her body, making her clothing cling to her unpleasantly, but Rian never gave up. Even as Genkai hit her directly in the face making her nose crack sickeningly and not even when Genkai knocked the wind out of her again and again; she kept going even though not a single one of her hits ever landed onto any part of Genkai's body besides her arms and hands when she blocked. Yusuke eventually had to go onto his recon mission for Koenma and Kurama went inside to help Yukina with the midday meal, but Kuwabara continued to watch them occasionally shouting out words of encouragement to Rian. An hour later Genkai threw one last hit that landed Rian on her ass once again when she finally stopped.

"That's enough for now. Go have some lunch and then we shall continue on." Genkai proceeded into the house not bothering to help Rian up but completely ignoring her instead.

Kuwabara took his chance to run over and heft her up onto her own two feet. "You did great; you almost managed to get some hits in! And your form is really good for someone just starting and all!"

"I have fought before you know, Kuwabara, just not as formally as Genkai likes to."

"Yeah, you used to fight like me and Urameshi." Kuwabara grinned and slapped her on the back, making her wince. She was sore all over and the day wasn't even done yet.

Lunch was already waiting for them when they got inside and Rian ate it in silence, not listening to anything Kuwabara or Kurama were trying to talk to her about. The only person she'd answer was Yukina who would occasionally ask how she was doing and if she'd like anything else. Rian's answers were always fine and no, thank you. She would respect the little green haired girl if no one else. As Rian finished her last bite of lunch she was grabbed by the ear and dragged back out to the courtyard where her first day of torture would continue until well into the evening.

**YYH**

When eight in the evening rolled around and Rian was finally able to call it quits, she could no longer move and, even after Genkai had retired into the temple for the night, she stayed lying on the ground. Yukina called to her that supper was ready but still she could not stir; that had been the worst workout of her life – and to think she'd have to do it all again tomorrow. When she didn't answer Yukina's third call Kuwabara went out to retrieve her. He picked her up bridal style and carried her inside as carefully as he could. Rian had no ambition to eat anything thinking all she'd do is throw it up but Yukina gave her a stern look she couldn't refuse and ate as much as she could. After that Yukina drew a hot bath which Kurama put some herbal soak into for her sore muscles. Sinking into it gratefully, Rian let her body relax and kept her movements to a minimum. She did enough to get clean and then she just laid there letting Kurama's herbs soak into her skin.

As she lay in the tub her thoughts wandered to what Botan had been talking about yesterday and wondered if it had anything to do with her. These things hadn't been happening before the Tentai had found her and brought things to light that she really hadn't wanted to know. Now that she did know she would try and make the best of it. Her first week with the group hadn't been so bad, besides Hiei and his anger problems. As her thoughts turned to Hiei she had to wonder where he could have gone and why he still wasn't back yet. Had he known what had happened after he left? She doubted it. Even though he had hurt her in such a way Rian couldn't bring herself to hate him even more over it, she didn't like the guy as it was, but she knew that she had deserved what she had gotten. Where did she get off calling someone a freak when compared to her – they didn't even know what she was. At least Hiei knew that much about himself. She still thought that eye was a little strange, though slightly hot at the same time. Rian's lip curled at her own thoughts. That was disgusting: in no way was that asshole hot. She shook her head to rid the thoughts but promptly stopped when pain shot down her spine. She instantly dunked her head under the hot water. Whipping her head back up, resulting in her black hair making water fly all over the room, Rian discarded the thoughts and decided to get out of the bath. She had another long day ahead of her and she wanted to be well rested.

**YYH **– Hours earlier, with Yusuke doing recon in the city.

Yusuke trudged his way downtown, not bothering with a bus, it wasn't worth it as it wouldn't take him where he needed to go. Rounding a corner into and alley Yusuke spotted the door he had been looking for, said door led into a bar that was hidden from normal humans. This bar was specifically made for demons and creeps only, the perfect place for Yusuke to beat some information out of some poor sucker. Shoving the door open so it slammed into the wall, Yusuke sauntered into the bar and took a seat at the counter. He grinned as several demons got up and fled at the sight of him; he loved being so well known in the demon community. The bartender made his way down to Yusuke's stool, glaring at him the whole time which only made Yusuke grin more.

"Hey man, listen, you're scaring away my business so how bout you get the hell outta here?"

"Hey man, listen, how about no?"

The bartender rolled his eyes, "Fine, what the hell do you want then?" Apparently he knew he wasn't going to get his way.

"I need some information about some shit that's been going on lately in the city. There has been an odd influx of natural deaths but there are way too many of them to actually be natural. You know anything about that?"

"Sorry man can't say I do. Can you scram now or what?"

"No, because I have a feeling you're lying. Don't make me beat your ass in front of all your patrons here."

"Okay, okay. Listen, I don't know much but this is what I've heard from some of the locals. It would seem that because a certain big shot, goes by the name Gintama, is looking for some little human chick, he's started giving people heart attacks and such to try and draw her out. I guess she has this amazing power to bring people back from the dead or some shit. I'd like to get my hands on that myself but I'm just trying to run a humble business here."

"Why does he think that killing people will draw her out?"

"Well I guess it's all counting on whether she has a bleeding heart or not. If not obviously she isn't going to bother to help these people but until she decides to the deaths are going to continue. Now I swear that's all I know man, can ya get outta here now?"

"Yeah, yeah, but I'll be seeing you again." Yusuke flipped a Makai coin onto the counter which he saw the bartender scarf up quickly and stuff into his pocket.

Yusuke stepped out into the light of day again and pulled out his pocket communicator. Glaring at the offending object he flipped it open and dialed Koenma's number. Honestly, why did the toddler need to make the things look like a make-up container?

"Koenma, holy ruler of Spirit World at your service, how may I help you?"

"Koenma, it's me, you twat. I've got that information you wanted." Yusuke proceeded to tell Koenma what he had learned even as the child ruler sputtered over being called a twat.

**YYH – **Genkai's temple, hours ahead, shortly after Rian had fallen asleep.

Back at Genkai's temple Kurama, Kuwabara, Genkai, and Yukina all sat around the table sipping tea. Tea was a daily part of their lives and having something that was an everyday norm was nice once and awhile.

"So, Rian-chan did well today, right Genkai-sama?"

"For a rookie she did fine, I suppose. I don't think she really fought as hard as she could have even though I hit her over and over again. It was like she was almost afraid to lose control."

"Do you think she really was holding back?" Kuwabara whispered as if it were taboo.

"Yes, I do think she was. I think there is a lot more to her then meets the eye and she doesn't want us to know that. I'll see what I can get out of her tomorrow; until then, goodnight boys." Genkai sucked down the last bit of her tea and then excused herself from the table. Shortly after, Yukina also bowed out saying she too had an early morning and needed her rest. Kuwabara and Kurama remained, savoring their tea and waiting for Yusuke's return.

"What do you think is taking Urameshi so long?"

"I'm sure he's trying to get a hold of Keiko again. He should be done with gathering intel by now."

"He should just give up on her; she's been rotten to him since he came back from Makai. She should have been happy he had returned, instead she shunned him."

"Kuwabara, we are not the ones to judge her or Yusuke. He loves her and if he wants to continue on with a fool's errand then who are we to stop him?"

"Kurama, that's not true, we're his friends. Maybe we should try to hook him and Rian up?"

Kurama snorted into his cup, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why not? They seem to like each other."

"Yes, but I think it's more of a brother sister kind of relationship. Plus…I feel that Hiei would be most displeased with that."

"Why the hell should that stupid shrimp care, he hates her."

"For now Kuwabara, for now…" Kurama trailed off into his tea with thoughts of his friend's futures and ignored Kuwabara all the while.

Kuwabara spent the rest of his night confused by what Kurama had said, and the more confused he got the more frustrated he became. Finally taking his frustrations out on his pillow, which had decided that night to be lumpy, Kuwabara fell asleep without one.

**END**

A/N: So, how was that one? Got some Hiei/Rian action thrown in there and everything. I hope to get chapter six out much sooner but I can't make any promises. Please read and review, I will truly appreciate it. Also if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask, you can PM me or leave it in your review as I read every single one. Thank you!

The Crazi Greek.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Okay, so here is chapter six. I would also like to address someone who left an anonymous review saying that they've read my story before. If this person supposedly has then I would like to know about it because then my story has been stolen. If it has been stolen I will release the wrath of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades on their ass because I sure as hell don't appreciate it! This story is 100% original, I came up with the idea myself, and my characters (besides the YYH cast) are all original. You can even ask my beta reader who receives the freshly written up chapters each time they're finished. So if anyone does find this story somewhere else, please let me know. Thanks.

A thanks goes out to Ayane Jaganshi for her fabulous beta-reading. If she didn't help me these chapters would have so many more errors.

Can you believe Atlas Shrugged is over a year old now? I didn't even realize. I started writing this on August 26th, 2009.

Atlas Shrugged – Chap. 6

**YYH**

Several days passed with nothing very eventful happening. Rian continued her training with Genkai and progressively got better; she was even able to land a few hits on the old bird if she really tried. Some days Genkai would have her get up even earlier and do katas which she became a master of in a very short time. They calmed her and allowed her body to become more flexible thus allowing her to more easily take a hit and more quickly recover from it. Yusuke had been moping around the temple since the day he'd gone out to find Keiko. Apparently she had told him to get lost once again, to stop calling her, and that she wanted nothing to do with him anymore; she no longer associated with demons and if she stayed away from Yusuke she would never have to deal with those things again. Rian felt bad for him. She didn't really understand love since she had never felt that kind of love herself, but she could see he was hurting and no matter what they did to try to cheer him up it wouldn't help. Only time would heal those wounds – lots of time.

The days turned into weeks until an entire month had gone by. Rian was kept busy every single day and every single night she hit her bed in pain. Physically, the pain was bearable; Kurama had given her a salve to rub onto her sore muscles. She used it sparingly as she didn't want to waste it; she only used it in the areas that hurt the most. Mentally, all she could think about was where the hell Hiei had gone. He had never been gone this long since she had been with the Tentai and even though the guys often reassured her that he would come back she didn't believe them. He didn't even send any kind of word about his whereabouts or if he was all right. The guys also told her this was common and Hiei would never send word anywhere unless it was absolutely necessary. In order to keep Rian from worrying so often, Kurama had taken to become her tutor. He taught her not only regular school things but also about the three worlds, their rulers, different species of demons, and also lent her books about spirit energy that she read as if she couldn't get enough of the knowledge. Rian appreciated what Kurama was doing, especially because it was summer break for them. Rian had stopped going to school after her first couple of years in middle school. Her lifestyle didn't condone school and it had been hard enough for her to attend those two years. If her parents had still been alive it would have been much easier. Rian was sure that she and Tenchi would never have become gang members; they would have lived happy, content lives. Rian would be in high school by now and maybe even college afterwards if she was feeling ambitious. She took everything Kurama taught her and gobbled it up like it was her life's blood. The nights Kurama wasn't able to tutor her were the worst nights for Rian; she would lay in bed sore and tired but unable to sleep and think. She would think of Tenchi, or her boys, of the Tentai, and of Hiei who she was grudgingly beginning to respect as she learned more about him. Even after she was finally able to sleep, her dreams were haunted by flames that licked and burned her skin: they were haunted by Gintama's face and her gang's deaths. She would wake up every morning, covered in sweat, and it was usually earlier then even Genkai would have had her awake.

On mornings such as those Rian would spend hours outside doing Katas and meditating until Genkai came out to put Rian through her morning routine. Rian had been upped to using weapons and Kurama had been the one chosen to show her how to throw knives. Rian had gotten the hang of that pretty quick and now had a target put up in her bedroom (in the shape of a certain fire demon) so she could practice at night or during the one day off a week Genkai allowed her to recuperate.

**YYH**

It had been exactly a month and ten days when Hiei returned to the temple but Rian had no idea he was there. It was early in the morning and Rian was outside doing her Katas and Hiei sat in a tree not far from her and watched how she had improved. Rian's movements were fluid and the muscles she had since gained rippled in her back and arms. Her hair had grown so much longer that Hiei was surprised; it seemed odd that her hair had grown so fast, what once used to be shortly cropped was now down near her chin. She had also neglected to dye it black again because quite a bit of the blonde was showing. She seemed to have gained a bit of weight, not in a bad way as it made her body look much healthier compared to when she had first shown up at the temple. Hiei decided he'd watch her a bit more and then move on inside to see how Yukina was doing as he hadn't seen her in a month and a half and wanted to make sure the oaf hadn't touched her in any way. Hiei jumped to a tree closer to Rian to get a better look at her when she startled and shot her eyes skyward. Hiei, thinking she had somehow sensed him, backed up into the shadows of the branches, but he soon found out that she wasn't looking in his direction at all. Her breathing had quickened and her eyes were wide with some emotion. Something strange had happened and, even as Hiei looked to the sky as she was, there was nothing there. What was wrong with her? Even as he thought this, Rian's eyes closed and she released a breath she had been holding.

"I can feel you nearby," she whispered.

Hiei had a feeling she wasn't talking about him but he certainly had no idea who else it could have been. The moon shifted, masking her face in darkness so he couldn't see the soft smile that spread across her face. Rian took off full pelt down Genkai's stairs and Hiei followed through the tree tops. She didn't look like she was jogging, that was for sure. She had become much faster then she had been before, though not nearly as fast as the rest of the team and certainly not as fast as Hiei himself, and reached the bottom in only a short amount of time then continued to run down the street. Hiei knew that Koenma wouldn't have revoked his previous statement that she wasn't allowed out in the city alone at any time.

Hiei followed for another ten minutes as Rian continued to run until she stopped and hid behind a lamppost. Hiei snorted quietly to himself – as if that thing were actually going to hide her. In amazement, he watched as she actually melted into the slim shadow that the lamppost created; he realized that not only was that a well known ninja spy tactic, but also one that Kurama had often used when he was Youko to sneak into castles to steal their treasures. He must have taught her the technique in order to keep her safer. If she could hide from her enemy it would make it easier to escape. She had learned more than he expected in the month and a half he'd been away. As he watched her Hiei felt a hint of spirit energy tickle his senses and switched his view from her to across the street.

There stood a boy probably about five years older than Rian; he was walking. To where Hiei didn't know. He had short cropped blood red colored hair, tattoos snaking up his arms, and too many piercings to count. Who was this guy and why was Rian so interested in him? A surge of some emotion ran through his mind but Hiei paid it no mind, he didn't know what it was and didn't plan to find out; he wasn't going to stop ignoring his feelings now or ever. While Hiei wasn't paying attention Rian slipped out from behind the lamppost.

"Oi, Wraith! I need to talk to you."

The man, Wraith it seemed, turned and grinned. It looked like he recognized her and Hiei didn't like that, this man didn't seem like the kind of person she should be meeting up with in the wee hours of the morning. Wraith wandered his way over to her with a lazy gait and slick grin on his face, flashing a sharpened canine. Hiei knew he wasn't a demon but the kid seemed to be trying his best to look like one.

"What can I do for you, little Tenchi?"

"Don't call me that asshole. Just because I took over the gang doesn't mean I'm him."

"Ahh, but you've tried so hard to look like him; even though you're a foot and a half shorter and also a girl."

"Shut up, this isn't what I came here to talk to you about."

"Well, what is it then?"

"Have you seen the gang lately?"

"Why yes I have dear, they're all living very productive lives all of a sudden. Seems quite odd to me. There's also the fact that they have completely forgotten you. What did you do to them Wrath?"

"I have done nothing. I just wanted to make sure they were safe, the rest is none of your concern."

"I see. Well, the least I can do is give you this then. It looks like you need it baby girl."

Rian cringed at the use of that terrible nickname, in the gang she had always been Rian or Wrath (Wrath was usually only used during "business" hours) but baby girl was unique to Wraith, only he called her that; the scumbag. Hiei watched as the man handed Rian a small box; he couldn't tell what it was and when he tried to get a better view of it Rian had already shoved it away into a pocket.

"Now buzz off, I don't even know why you were hanging around here anyway."

"Just for some kicks babe, kicks. Never been down this end of the city before, gets pretty rural it looks like. That's not my style so I'll be on my way but if you ever need me again, you know how to reach me. See ya, baby girl." And with a cocky wave and an evil grin, Wraith walked off into the night, whistling some creepy tune. Hiei saw Rian shudder and wrap her arms around herself, before also turning and running back in the direction of the temple.

Hiei decided he'd be on a mission to find out what Rian had been given and also how she knew such a creep. The guy had spirit energy, albeit a weak amount, but he obviously knew something of the supernatural. The sun had yet to rise, but when it did he'd make an appearance and then corner Rian when she was least expecting it so he could scare the answers out of her.

**YYH**

When the sun had risen Rian was still outside doing Katas on her own; she had also begun to fight with a training dummy because, for whatever reason, Genkai had yet to show herself. When the old bat finally did, it was only to tell Rian that today would be her one day off of the week and to enjoy it because she'd be worked extra hard tomorrow. Rian groaned, "That would have been nice to know way earlier you old biddy!"

Rian just rolled her eyes at the evil cackle she could hear coming from inside the temple; she knew Genkai had done it on purpose just to be a pain in the ass. Shrugging her shoulders to loosen the muscles there, Rian made her way into the temple; she had something she needed to do today so she may as well get it over and done with now. Rian walked into the "construction" area where the boys were yawning and kicking at bits of wood they would later have to sweep up and throw out. The temple's living room was coming along nicely even if it was being fixed by two incompetents and one girly boy. The furniture had been thrown out, the floor was the first to be fixed as it would be needed to fix the ceiling, and the wood was unstained and fresh. The boys had just barely finished sanding it the other day and would now be starting on the ceiling which is why Genkai had woken them so early. She was getting sick and tired of having to sit in the stone meeting room and wanted her comfy little living space back.

"Good morning, boys." Rian gave them a blinding and very corny grin.

Yusuke cringed, "Nothing good about it. I don't know shit about carpentry; if it weren't for Kurama barking out instructions from a book all day this would take ten times longer than it already has. I don't know why grandma can't pay a real carpenter to do this shit. She has enough goddamn money for it, that's for sure."

Rian patted him on the shoulder, pretending to feel his pain, "Well, don't forget Yusuke, she ordered the new furniture and you guys are going to have to lug it all up the stairs." An evil, evil grin crossed her face at the even more pitiful groans Yusuke and Kuwabara released.

Laughing, Rian skipped by them and into the kitchen; she planned to eat a hearty breakfast and then take a long shower. As she swung around the corner she was stopped dead in her tracks by what she saw. Sitting atop the kitchen counter with a pair of chopsticks in his hands and a plate on his lap was Hiei. Yukina was fussing over him and kept putting more food on his plate when it looked like it might be getting low. Even though Hiei rolled his eyes at her actions he didn't seem annoyed by them and continued to eat even as Yukina heaped another scoop of rice into the little bowl that sat next to him on the counter. Rian thought she may have seen a hint of a smile touch his lips but it must have been a trick of the light; Hiei didn't smile. Rian tried to quietly sneak into the room so she could grab her specially made, high protein breakfast that sat at the table but before she could place a foot into the actual kitchen Hiei's eyes snapped up and pinned her where she stood. Rian squeaked and planned to make a hasty retreat from the room when Yukina turned around and spotted her also.

"Rian-chan, your breakfast is ready. Won't you come sit down and I'll make you some coffee to go with it."

Not being able to refuse Yukina, Rian just nodded and sat in the seat farthest from Hiei she could get. Even as he stared at her, Rian picked up her chopsticks and started shoving rice into her mouth as fast as she could without choking on it; when she reached the eggs she took big chunks and swallowed them whole. She would get out of that kitchen as soon as possible even if it killed her. That was until a piece of egg lodged into her throat and she ended up having a coughing fit, spewing bits of egg onto the table. Yukina came over and slapped her on the back so Rian was able to finally dislodge the egg from her windpipe.

"You should eat slower Rian-chan, not only can you choke but it's also bad for your health." With a gentle smile, Yukina set down Rian's coffee and then grabbed a tray with the boys' breakfast so she could bring it to them. Rian was left alone in the kitchen with Hiei.

Clearing her throat once again, Rian proceeded to eat slower as the look of disgust Hiei had been throwing her was starting to grate on her nerves. In between bites she took sips of coffee and tried to keep her eyes from wandering father than the edge of the table which was hard because she wanted to look at him, see if he had changed any in the month and a half he'd been missing. She refrained though even as she felt his eyes bore into the top of her head; she even managed not to look up when a plate clattered into the sink and the water began to run. Rian knew Hiei was washing his dishes as he always did for Yukina, unlike the other boys, and as soon as he was finished he would leave. With a sigh of relief Rian refilled her coffee cup because now she'd be able to take her time. That was true until Hiei grabbed the hand around the mug and pried it from her fingers. Setting it down on the table in front of her, Hiei pushed her chair back away from the table and stood, waiting for her to look up at him. Which, of course, she did because Rian took such actions as a challenge and instead of sitting down and taking it she shot to her feet, ready to kick his ass.

"So, you just got back and you're already going to start shit, huh?" Hiei didn't answer and instead walked forward until he had her backed up into the wall.

"I just have some questions I need to ask you, because you see, I saw some interesting things quite early this morning."

"I don't know what you're talking about and if you'd move your ass I'll be on my way. I don't have time to waste on petty fighting today because of some moron who can't leave me the hell alone."

"Oh? And what could you possibly have to do today that is so important? Go see that red haired lover of yours?" The last was said with a growl for reasons Hiei didn't even understand.

"Ew, Kurama? No offence to him but pretty boys aren't my type. Did you get kicked in the head while you were gone and came back retarded?"

"No, onna! I'm talking about that red headed creep you met on the street this morning!"

"Ooh, him, he's no one. Just an old friend from when I was in the gang. And double 'ew' on that one; I'd date you before I ever even let that creep put a finger on me. Gross."

"What did he give you then? Drugs?"

"What? Fuck you, I don't do that shit! Buzz off Hiei; I'm not in the mood to be accused by some asshole that hasn't been here in over a month!"

With that Rian shoved him; hard. Hiei had no choice but to move out of the way so she could run by and leave him to ponder her odd reactions to his questions. She had almost seemed embarrassed by them and Hiei couldn't understand why; it was her own fault for going to meet some shady man early in the morning without telling anyone and, because she didn't tell anyone, it made it obvious she had something to hide. Hiei planned to find out what that something was.

**YYH**

Rian ran to her room and slammed the door shut with an angry huff. How dare he do that the second he gets back. Like it was any of his business anyway, the little twerp! Grabbing a fresh outfit (a pair of black slacks, white undershirt, and red dress shirt), she brought them into her personal bathroom and set the ensemble down on the side of the sink along with a towel. Reaching into the medicine cabinet above the sink she pulled out the box that Wraith had given her that morning and for the first time took a look at it and noticed that in fact the color of it was purple. With a growl she chucked the box to the floor and was going to stomp on it when she stopped, taking a closer look she shrugged and decided what the hell, she'd do it anyway. Rian opened the box and pulled out a bottle with a purple looking creamy substance inside and with a grin and a shake of her head Rian stripped off her clothes and put the entire contents of the bottle into her hair. She couldn't wait until she saw the odd looks from the gang later. Cackling, she sat atop the toilet and waited the allotted twenty minutes that the box suggested before hopping into the shower stall. Humming all the while, Rian danced in the stall as she washed the substance out of her hair and turned the water that streamed over her body purple. She washed up and then, half an hour later, was out of the shower and dressed. Looking at herself in the mirror, she grinned at the results of the hair dye; Wraith had done her good this time. Throwing her dress coat over her shoulder, Rian waltzed from the room with a superior air about her so she could show off her new hair; she knew she'd be getting some pretty stunned looks in the process.

Rian walked through the room the boys were working on and ignored the shocked exclamations of Kuwabara and Kurama, Yusuke wasn't there for some reason but she'd find him later because his reaction would be hilarious. Rian walked by Genkai and Yukina, who were enjoying cups of morning tea, and received a wide eyed stare from Yukina and Genkai ended up spitting the tea all over herself. Laughing, Rian continued on until she was outside where she could hear Yusuke yelling about something there but when she turned the corner she realized that Yusuke wasn't yelling at something, but someone. Yusuke stood with his fist wrapped in Hiei's cloak and he was screaming at him for something that Rian hadn't heard. Hiei looked unimpressed and kept his hands shoved deep into his pockets; he wouldn't look Yusuke in the eye but he didn't move to stop him from yelling either.

"What the fuck is your problem Hiei? You get a little pissed off so you leave a defenseless girl to die? What were you thinking, are you stupid?"

Rian finally realized that Yusuke had been still hiding a grudge from over a month ago for when Hiei left her in the temple alone. Even though he had said he was over it apparently the sight of Hiei had brought it all back. Like hell Rian was going to stand around and let him yell at Hiei for something that was her fault; she was the one who should have been yelled at and if Yusuke felt the need he could take it out on her now.

"Hey you bastard, why don't you pick on someone your own size!" Yusuke dropped Hiei's cloak and turned to look at who had called to him.

Realizing it was Rian he scowled, "This is none of your business okay, so just scram for a bit." He was so angry he didn't even realize that Rian now had a neon shade of purple for a hair color.

"No, I already told you it was my fault so leave him alone Yusuke."

Hiei moved to the sidelines to watch the two argue. Yusuke was pissed off and would probably snap at anyone that dares talk to him and Rian looked just as pissed off as he was; this should be interesting.

"Rian, he left you alone to fucking burn! How was that your goddamn fault?"

"Because I said some shit I shouldn't have, I already told you this a month ago." Progressively they drew closer together; Rian's fists were clenched so hard her knuckles were white and Yusuke looked about ready to punch something, anything, maybe even Rian.

"I should beat the shit out of him, he didn't even come back to check on you! You almost died, do you realize this?"

A strange emotion flittered across Rian's face, but she quickly masked it, "Fuck you Yusuke, if you try to hurt him you'll have to come through me first." Rian planted her feet firmly in front of Hiei who hadn't realized she'd moved so close to him.

Yusuke's face scrunched and a flash of anger, annoyance, betrayal, and finally a look of hatred crossed his features…then, he snapped. With a cry he came running at Rian. Stunned, Rian didn't bother to move; she hadn't actually thought he'd try to attack her. His first punch hit her square in the jaw and she was slammed back quite a few feet. Hiei moved to catch her before she hit the ground. In his arms she looked up at him, her jaw was obviously dislocated but with a cringe Rian popped it back into place.

"I have a high tolerance for pain, always have. Thanks for catching me though."

And with that she ran at Yusuke who stood panting in the middle of the yard. Hiei could tell he was holding back, he would never lose his mind enough to release all his fury on a girl, especially one who wasn't nearly as strong as he was. He planned to have a purely hand to hand brawl with Rian, the style of fighting they were both best at. Hiei noticed that Kuwabara and Kurama had wandered out on the porch at some point and Yukina and Genkai were also there; Yukina had a look of fear on her face and this struck a chord in Hiei's heart. Yukina should never have a reason to be afraid. Ignoring this for now, he turned back to the fight.

Rian threw a quick jab into Yusuke's gut but Yusuke followed with a kick to her chest. She fell, only to kick his feet out from under him. With Yusuke on the ground, Rian hopped onto his chest and proceeded to beat his face until her knuckles became bloody. With a powerful push Yusuke threw her off; she stumbled to her feet but before she could fully gain her footing Yusuke round house kicked her over again. With a groan, Rian rolled back onto her feet and the fight continued. One punch after another was thrown with Yusuke the obvious victor every time; Rian was constantly on the ground, blocking, or dodging. Knowing that she wouldn't win, Rian switched fully to defensive strategies which just continued to piss Yusuke off more as he couldn't land a hit on her. Stopping in the middle of the fight Yusuke pointed his index finger at her, holding his hand in the shape of a gun.

Rian turned to Hiei, "What's he doing?"

With wide eyes the boys yelled at her to turn around from the porch knowing they wouldn't reach her in time and even though Hiei ran he had noticed too late, with a yell Yusuke released his spirit gun, point blank at Rian. With a giant boom it hit her, making a crater in the ground and causing anything else near it to disintegrate; there was no way she could have lived through that. Even as Yusuke's spirit energy began to fade an even brighter light shot from the middle of the orb, with a swirl of wind his energy was dissipated and in the middle of the crater stood Rian. Besides the cuts and bruises from the brawl she'd just had with the spirit detective she stood, unharmed, surrounded by a white light. Her eyes were once again the pure white they had been when the Tentai had first seen her and her hair floated around her like a halo. The light was concentrated mostly near her hands, as if her power had blocked his blast and then destroyed any further danger from the energy by exploding it up into the atmosphere. The light faded and then it was just Rian standing in the crater with glowing white eyes that stared straight ahead even as the boys ran towards her, Hiei was the first there and those eyes looked right through him; for the second time since Hiei had known her, Rian fainted into his arms.

**YYH**

Hours later, after Genkai had punched Yusuke so hard in the face an entire side of it was swollen and bruised; she wouldn't let Yukina heal it for him.

"Let the little bastard suffer, don't show someone like that pity Yukina. It'll only come back to bite you in the ass some day." Yukina only stared at her pitifully because she didn't like seeing anyone in pain and couldn't understand what Genkai was talking about.

Yusuke had calmed down a lot and felt so awful about what he'd done he had actually cried; not even Kuwabara said anything about it. They all let him sit and wallow in his tears even as he kept mumbling about his "imouto" and how he had lost it, that he didn't mean it. No one paid any attention; they were all pretty mad at him, including Hiei who normally could give a shit less about everything. He couldn't believe the detective would use that level of attack on an almost defenseless human girl.

Rian had been placed into her bedroom by Kuwabara and Yukina had tended to her wounds but she still hadn't woken up. Genkai had a feeling that her powers took a quite a bit out of her and it took her at least a day to recoup from it. After everyone had left her room so she could rest without any interruptions, Hiei had snuck in and now sat in the small desk chair which he had pulled up next to her bed. He was only there to watch over her and try to repay his debt for leaving her alone that time, or at least that's what he told himself. He tried not to pay attention to her overly purple hair which looked absolutely hideous but, even though he didn't want to admit it, it was also a good color for her. All she normally wore was black and red; a different color was a nice change. Her hair was splayed across the pillow and, absentmindedly, as Hiei was thinking about the changes he had seen in her, he was twirling little pieces of it in his fingers. Her hair was soft, he noticed, before snatching his fingers back. What the hell was he thinking?

The afternoon slowly faded into night and Hiei watched out the window as the moon rose and wished he wasn't in the room he was in now. Rian's smell was still just as intoxicating as it had been the last time he'd been near her and it was starting to make him stir crazy. It was starting to get hard to ignore when Rian started to rustle in the bed and her eyes flickered and then popped open. She sprang up pulling in deep gulps of air like she wasn't able to breathe and, thinking she was having some kind of fit, Hiei also jumped up and climbed into the bed with her. He kneeled in front of her and grabbed her shoulders; he proceeded to shake her until she came to her senses and slapped him.

"What the fuck Hiei?"

"You seemed to be having a fit; I was trying to knock you out of it."

"Yeah well, you can let go of me now."

Hiei realized that he was still, in fact, holding her shoulders and snatched them back as if they had burnt his fingers.

"Why are you in my bed anyway?"

"I couldn't reach you otherwise."

"Oh, I see. How did I get in here anyway, I don't remember anything…except for a huge bright blue ball of light heading straight for me! What the hell was that?"

"The detective used one of his techniques on you. It knocked you out." Hiei purposely left out the part about her using her own powers to stop his blast.

Rian yawned, "I'm so tired, how come? I must have been out for awhile; I feel pretty weak, though. That must have been some blast to make me feel like this. Remind me to thank Yukina for healing me too; I'm sure I would have been in a lot more pain otherwise. Right now all that hurts is my head, thank god, because I can deal with that."

"I will tell her for you. I'm sure the others will want to know you're awake." Hiei went to get up but before he could get fully off her bed Rian grabbed his hand.

"Don't go please; I can't deal with them right now. Won't you come lay with me?"

Hiei started at her like she'd lost it. "No, I will not."

"Please? Don't make me beg, I feel strange Hiei and I don't want to be alone. You're the only one in this place that won't make a huge fuss over me."

Hiei's eyes wouldn't look at her but he crawled back onto the bed anyway. Rian moved over to make room for him to also lay down. He couldn't figure out why she was doing this; he had his own room here he could retire to if he wanted and he didn't want to be any closer to her than he already was. Rian patted the outside edge of the bed where there was just enough room for Hiei to squeeze in but not enough room to keep from touching her in some way. For whatever reason he couldn't say no to her so he climbed under the blankets next her. Rian turned onto her side away from him so she was facing the wall so Hiei decided to lay on his side in the opposite direction so at least he wouldn't need to look at her. In a matter of minutes he heard Rian's breathing even out and was going to get up and leave when he felt her feet twine with his. He froze in shock but that wouldn't be all; Rian rolled over in her sleep and proceeded to wrap her arms around his middle so there was no way for him to move without waking her up. Hiei already knew he was in for a very long night and also that he wouldn't be getting any damn sleep with her scent surrounding him in all directions. She was too close, oh so close. She burrowed her head into the back of his neck; he could feel her soft exhalations of breath and it made him shiver. With a sigh, Hiei relaxed. He may as well settle down for the night himself. As soon as Rian let go he would wake and leave before anyone else saw him there. Closing his eyes, Hiei drew in one last sweet breath of her scent and then fell asleep himself.

**YYH**

Author's Note: Alright, so how was that? Hiei and Rian seem to be getting a little closer, ne? As always please read and review, I would honestly appreciate it. I love reading every ones opinions on this. Constructive criticisms are always welcome also, so please feel free to do that if you'd like. Until next time, The Crazi Greek.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: I'm sorry about how long this has taken guys, I feel really bad. Between work, school, and then being sick and also losing my internet I wasn't able to write or update. Gomen! Thanks for the reviews though, I loved them!

I know I'm just making excuses right? LOL. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, please read AND REVIEW, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Once again, many thanks go out to Ayane Jaganshi, my wonderful and sweet beta-reader who I adore. Let's all give her a round of applause for being awesome!

Now on with the fic!

Atlas Shrugged – Chap. 7

**YYH**

One blink, two blinks…

Hiei's eyes finally opened and took stock in his surroundings. This wasn't his room so where the hell was he? A groan beside him caused him to tense and shoot up from the bed. That wasn't what had originally woke him up though, oh no; the thing that had awakened him was much worse than finding out he'd slept through the entire night in Rian's arms. Standing at the door with a tray full of breakfast food was Yukina and behind her stood Genkai. Both women's eyes were huge and full of disbelief; Hiei was surprised Yukina hadn't dropped the tray. Wishing for anything to get out of the situation he was in Hiei turned to hear Rian rustling in the bed. She was sitting up and looking at the two women curiously as if she didn't know why they were so stunned.

"Uh, good morning Yukina and Obachan, why are you looking at me like that?"

Genkai shuffled out from behind Yukina, "Because I found you curled up with Hiei in your goddamn bed, that's why!"

"Oh that…it's not what it looks like."

"To hell it's not! What were you thinking!" The last part was directed towards Hiei.

Rolling his eyes, Hiei jumped back on Rian's bed only to rip open the window and escape. All Rian could do was blink in astonishment – what an asshole. Gulping, she turned back to the very angry Genkai who had smoke coming out of her ears.

"I will not have this sort of conduct in my home! Do you even know what could happen to you? Having sex with a demon is a bad idea on more than one account so if I catch you two like this again you will no longer be able to see him."

"What are you, my mother? Fuck off old lady, I was serious, it wasn't what it looked like. I asked him to stay with me so I'd feel safe, all we did was sleep and he never touched me. I may be a punk but I'm as far from a liar as they come, besides, I'd tell you if we screwed."

"Genkai-sama…Hiei wouldn't hurt her, you must know this by now? Hiei is a good man."

"Yes Yukina, I know…it's this girl I'm worried about. Who knows what she'd do to Hiei."

"Excuse me! What's that supposed to mean you old bitch!"

With a cackle, Genkai left in a cloud of smoke, leaving Rian and Yukina alone. Rian sat fuming on her bed while Yukina only smiled, just realizing what Genkai had said was a joke. Setting down Rian's breakfast tray, Yukina bowed to her and then also left. Sulking, Rian ate her breakfast, took her shower, and all that other happy stuff and, still sulking, left her room to find something more interesting to do. She was surprised Genkai hadn't forced her to go out and train yet, though she was kind of grateful; she was still really tired from yesterday. Wandering around the temple Rian discovered that it was an off-day for everyone. Kuwabara wasn't working on the living room and instead sat with his sister Shizuru and Kurama in the kitchen, and besides Shizuru the others looked sullen. Genkai was having tea with Yukina in the meeting room chatting about one thing or another but neither Hiei nor Yusuke were anywhere to be found. Rian wanted to talk to Yusuke about yesterday to tell him there were no hard feelings and Hiei she just wanted to smack; how dare he leave her to fend for herself this morning, the bastard.

Rian sighed. As she obviously wasn't going to find anything better to do, she went to get Genkai and find out why she wasn't training her today. Wandering back to the room she last saw the old hag in, Rian stopped when she heard whispers from inside. Straining her ears she could just barely make out three voices: one was Genkai's the other two belonged to Yusuke and Hiei. Yukina didn't seem to be in the room any longer and the conversation they were having was becoming heated. Rian leaned closer to the door to try to get into a better hearing range; even though the conversation was in whispers they were angry ones. Rian could hear most of what they were saying so she decided to snoop a little bit.

"Yusuke, what you did is unacceptable no matter the excuse. You could have killed her and this was all over some tiff you have with Hiei for something that happened almost two months ago."

"I told you Genkai that I wasn't thinking! A voice in my head told me to stop and shoot. I remember lifting my arm and shooting off my spirit gun but I had no control of my movements. I swear to Enma, I couldn't control myself."

Hiei scoffed, "You're too strong to have been under mind control. I am an experienced user of the Jagan Eye and even I couldn't control you no matter how hard I tried. What a laughable excuse detective."

"Shut the fuck up Hiei! It's the truth. You may not like me right now but you damn well know I've never lied to anyone I care about. That includes your stupid ass."

"Back to the point boys, Rian can't be human. No human would have survived that blast. She looks, acts, and her aura even seems human but there is no way that she is. Yusuke, if you really were under some kind of mind control than it must have been someone very powerful and even more skilled in the subject than Hiei. Do you remember what the voice sounded like?"

Yusuke was silent for bit and then, "Yeah…yeah I do. It was female that was for sure and the voice was deep and persuasive, almost hypnotic. If the person were to sing me a friggin' lullaby I'd fall asleep in seconds, I know that much."

"Good that's something to start with I guess. Only narrows down about half the three world's populations." Genkai said sarcastically.

"Well that's all I've got so you can either take it and use it, or shove it up your old ass. It's up to you." Yusuke rose from his sitting position and before he left he turned towards Hiei. "I want you to stay away from Rian. I'm sorry for flipping out on you man but I see the way you look at her sometimes and it's disgusting. She doesn't want you and never will. My imouto wouldn't go for the only guy in the world with no heart and no emotions besides anger."

With that Yusuke stalked to the door and in a hasty retreat Rian ran down the hallway to the kitchen where Shizuru, Yukina, and Kuwabara were sitting. Racing into the room Rian swiftly took a chair and tried to calm her breathing as a minute later Yusuke also entered. Acting like she hadn't heard or seen anything, Rian sat there whistling while the occupants of the kitchen that had seen her race in like a bat out of hell stared at her like she was nuts. Yusuke ruffled her hair as he walked by and then left through the back door, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his jeans pocket as he went. Sitting on a large boulder in the back yard, Rian watched from the window as he pulled a cancer stick out of the pack and lit it up. He looked troubled and Rian wished she could go talk to him but she didn't want to let on that she'd been eavesdropping.

A hand landed on her shoulder, startling her. "Hey kid, don't worry about him. He's made of tougher stuff than you think."

It was Shizuru, the older Kuwabara and most definitely the smarter of the two. Rian liked the woman after having met her a few more times and watching her boss around Kuwabara was hilarious. She'd never seen a grown man whimper more around a woman then when Kuwabara was around Shizuru. He's such a baby. Rian looked up into the solemn face of the female Kuwabara, "You think so?"

"Oh, I know so. I've seen some pretty amazing stuff done by him. He just feels really bad about what he did to you. Knowing that you have no hard feelings would probably help; go talk to him." With a final slap on her back, Shizuru wandered back over to her brother and Yukina who had just set out more cups of tea. That girl must be a tea expert by now, Rian thought.

Standing, Rian left the same way Yusuke had; by the time she got outside he was already on his third cigarette. Lazily, he cocked his head to see who it was that had come to bother him and with a sigh he threw his unfinished cig to the ground and squashed it with the toe of his tennis shoe.

"What can I do for ya, kid?" He grinned, but Rian could tell it was fake.

Staring at her feet and shuffling the dirt around with her toes, Rian thought of what to say to him.

Making up her mind she spoke, "I don't exactly know what you did yesterday. I will admit it scared me and from what the other guys have been saying it should have killed me. None of that matters though because Yusuke, you're one of my best friends and I mean that."

She stopped when she heard Yusuke scoff. He pulled out another cigarette and lit it up, the cherry in the middle glowing brightly even in the sunlight. He blew a large cloud of smoke her way and Rian cringed at how much damage he must be doing to his lungs.

"Will you just listen please? Without any negativity, too, would be good."

Yusuke just nodded his ascent and continued to smoke. Rian almost thought he wasn't paying attention to her. With a sigh and a shake of her head, she continued.

"I don't blame you for what happened. You didn't seem like yourself and I forgive you. I'm fine so there's no harm done. Please don't fret over it anymore." Rian flashed him an awkward grin but when he didn't answer it quickly faded.

Rolling her eyes Rian turned to leave but was stopped in her tracks when Yusuke began to speak.

"I've been through so much since I was a kid and my life just continues to throw shit at me. Before I became a Rekai Tantei my life was worse I suppose. I'd take demon fights and protecting the world any day over what I had before…a drunken mother who could give two shits about me and a poor existence of dirty fighting and skipping school."

Rian turned around and reversed her steps but she continued on so she could sit on the boulder next to Yusuke. He still wouldn't look at her but he continued to speak anyway.

"I've even died three times. I'm about as abnormal as they come and because of that I've lost the only person who ever gave a shit about me before I became a detective."

"Keiko?" Rian asked.

"Yeah, Keiko. She may not have been the prettiest girl around and she sure as hell was bossy but I loved her. I promised to make her my wife and then she threw that back in my face. Least I still have my friends I guess. Not that it matters now as they're all mad at me for what I did to you."

"They'll get over it, I mean come on, you guys put up with Hiei every day and he's a dick." At that comment Yusuke released a bark of laughter that brought the smile back to Rian's face.

"What's up with this hair anyway?"

Rian respected that he wanted to change the subject so she went along with it, "I decided to do something fun. It looks good though, right?"

"Yeah, purple seems to be your color. You gunna cut your hair again? It's getting pretty long."

"Yeah, I think I will. I just don't have anyone to do it. One of the boys in the gang used to do it for me, now I suppose I'd have to go to a salon." She cringed at the word.

"Nah, you won't have to. Kurama will do it for you. He trims rose hedges and makes them look like perfect sculptures. I'm sure he could cut your hair."

"Where is Kurama anyway?" Rian wondered.

"Out back in the garden I'm sure. On off days like this he's usually there tending to it and growing new plants and what not. Not my thing, that's for sure. Come on, want to go find him?"

Rian nodded and so they both got up and trekked around the vast land that the temple rested upon.

**YYH**

After Yusuke had stormed out of the meeting room Hiei also retreated to the bedroom Genkai had designated as his. Leaning against the wall he had his care kit out for his katana with the items meticulously spread out before him within easy reaching distance. He was currently sharpening the blade of the sword as he thought over what the detective had said. Stay away from her? Him wanting to be near her for over a second was laughable so why warn him of something that he would easily do all on his own? Hiei couldn't seem to wrap the concept around his head; why would the detective think he felt any sort of attraction towards her? Sure, her smell was…intriguing…but that was all; he didn't need to be near her.

With a grunt, Hiei put more effort into his sword sharpening while odd thoughts kept rolling around in his head. The sharpener traveled back and forth, back and forth until the sharp edge of the blade sliced Hiei's hand. He had missed the blade completely with the sharpener and with an annoyed look he watched the blood drip down the side of his blade. Angry, Hiei tossed it aside and wrapped his hand in a spare polishing cloth. That damn woman would be the death of him…the slow, painful, and annoying death of him.

Hiei's window was open and he could hear voices coming from outside. Ignoring his bleeding palm for now he crept closer, allowing a warm breeze to wash over him as he did. It carried the scents of the garden to him, also telling him Kurama was back there working. Then another smell hit his nose and he cringed; not in distaste but because it was the smell of the tiny woman that constantly plagued his thoughts. He also realized that the voices belonged to her and Yusuke; they were chatting about one idle thing or another, he paid no attention to them.

He wished he could figure out what kind of scent hers was. It was unlike anything that had touched his nostrils before and he had scented many foul and good things in his time. The only thing that popped into his head was sweet. That wasn't an exact explanation though; it was as if her very blood smelled delicious. A vampiric demon could suck her dry easily and still beg for more of her afterwards. Hiei wasn't interested in drinking her blood though – the thought alone disgusted him. He wouldn't be adverse to another taste of her skin though: even that had been sweet and tangy. It was as if her whole body is made of something much different than a human's, almost edible even.

Growling, Hiei dispelled the thoughts from his head, sick and tired of pondering something he wouldn't find any answers for any time soon. Instead he turned his attention back outside where Rian, Yusuke and Kurama were currently discussing something in the gardens. Hiei heard a snippet about hair and then watched as Kurama pulled up a lawn chair for her to sit on. Bidding her to wait a moment, Kurama ran back towards the house, presumably to grab something from inside. Within minutes he had returned with a set of scissors and combs that Hiei had seen Kurama use numerous times, even on Hiei himself. They were to cut and shape hair like he did all the bushes about the grounds. Despite popular belief, Hiei's hair didn't stay the same all the time; it grew just like everyone else's, even faster than normal because he was a demon. Kurama was the only person he trusted to get close enough to him with a sharp object so he was the designated hair cutter on the team. If Hiei let his hair run wild it would grow long and no longer stand up like it usually did, this had happened on more than one occasion when he had been gone for long periods of time and Kurama had bought him special bands so he could tie up his hair and keep it out of his face during a fight. Hiei had seen the fox use them also so he knew how they worked.

He watched as Kurama asked Rian how much she wanted removed and she told him to cut it as short as it had been when she first arrived. Hiei cringed; it looked so much better long. Not that it mattered to him either way.

With a flourish the fox started to snip away at her hair.

**YYH**

"Are you sure you want to take that much off Rian?" Yusuke asked worriedly.

"Of course, I hate my hair long. Chop away Kurama!"

And so Kurama did, layering the strands even as he cropped it short to her head; he gave her a pixie cut. Much more feminine then what she had had originally so she wouldn't look as much like a boy. The purple strands flew around her making Rian grin as they fell because her head felt so much lighter. Within ten minutes Kurama had finished and asked Rian to stand and dust the hair off her. He handed her a mirror to inspect the cut herself.

"It's girly…" she mumbled.

"Yes, that's what I was aiming for. You could use a little more girlishness to you."

Yusuke laughed out loud at the sour look Rian gave the kitsune before she tossed back the mirror. With an angry stomp she headed for the temple mumbling about stupid demons the whole way.

"Well, I think it looks good. Nice job Kurama." Yusuke slapped him on the back making him pitch forward.

"Thanks Yusuke."

**YYH**

Rian stomped her way into the temple ready to go hide her new haircut under a nice fedora when a sound caught her attention. It was almost a whisper but loud enough for here to almost hear clearly. She turned back in the direction she'd come from and wandered back outside searching for the noise.

A voice came to her then, a whisper through her mind, urging her to go towards the woods. It was persuasive and powerful, enough so that she didn't think twice about walking into the woods and passed the only protection they provided: the wards Genkai had strung up on all the trees in the front of the forest.

As she stepped through that last line of defense, a wave of energy flew over her making her skin crawl and her hair stand on end. Rubbing the back of her neck, Rian looked around nervously and then tried to recall why she had stepped out there in the first place.

"There's nothing here, I should just go back…" She didn't budge as if something was holding her there.

"I'll just turn around and head back, yep, just turn around like so…" Trying to move again Rian realized that she was in fact physically stuck to the spot.

"What the fuck?"

"Ha ha ha ha…" An eerie laugh surrounded her and even though Rian tried her best to strain her ears enough to figure out which direction it had come from it was futile.

"Who's there?" She didn't let her fear show on her face as she glared as far around her as she could without turning.

Someone appeared behind her, she could feel their eyes boring into the back of her skull. Stiffening, she prepared to be attacked even though she couldn't defend herself in her current position. Her caution was unneeded though as the person, or thing, only proceeded to walk around her until they were stopped directly in front of her, close enough that Rian could smell them.

It was obviously a male, humanoid also so Rian couldn't tell whether it was a demon or not, from the power coming of off them though she guessed it was. She remembered Genkai telling her that higher level demons took on humanoid forms and as Rian took that into account she realized she was in big, big trouble.

"Glad to see you decided to come visit me. I've been trying to call on you for days but something was blocking my abilities and they kept getting transferred elsewhere – not only mine but my accomplices also. You must have some funny little interference mechanism imbedded in your brain, how clever."

"There is nothing imbedded into my brain. Now, I would appreciate it if you let me leave, you bastard."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Ah, but where are my manners." He reached out a hand for her to shake which Rian blatantly ignored making him frown. "Well either way, my name is Malik. It is so nice to finally meet you my dear." He grinned.

"Yeah, likewise, totally…not."

"You're just as rude as I was told you'd be. How unfortunate. It looks like I'll have to put you in your place after all."

Malik back handed her across the face; hard. Rian winced as her face was thrown to the side and a very obvious red mark that would soon become a bruise made her cheek sting. Blood dripped from the side of her lip where her teeth had cut it.

Rian glared towards the man. "What the fuck do you want?" she growled.

"Why, you, my dear. What else could I want?"

That's when Rian new she was going to be kidnapped and that there was no chance for her to stop it from happening. She only had one choice and that was to rely on the guys to come rescue her, as much as that would dent her pride. Even with that thought in mind Rian opened her mouth and released an ear splitting scream. That scream only lasted about a second before Malik had covered her mouth with his hand; she proceeded to try and bite said hand but Malik only back handed her once again.

"Try that again and I swear I'll cut your tongue out." Malik flashed a large knife in front of her face. "I'm sure that someone heard you so we really must be going now. Say good-bye because this will be the last time you see this place." Malik struck her swiftly in the back of the neck, effectively knocking her out before he threw her over his shoulder.

Opening a portal, Malik turned just in time to see a black blur running at him but that blur didn't make it before Malik stepped through the portal and as soon as he did it closed behind him.

**YYH**

Hiei had heard that blood curdling scream, he had known who it was, and within seconds he'd reacted by instincts alone and ran in the direction he knew the sound had come from. It brought him to Genkai's woods, past the wards which still stung him every time he went near them, and then into a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a man that had Rian thrown over his shoulder. She was obviously unconscious and he could smell a slight hint of blood on the air.

Like hell he was going to let that man get away with his woman.

Not even stopping to analyze what he had just thought, Hiei ran at the man only to have him grin and then step through his portal. In an instant he was gone and Hiei was stuck on the other side staring off into the distance as if stunned.

The rest of the Tantei showed up shortly after only to find Hiei bashing a tree to bits with his fists.

"Where's Rian, Hiei?" Yusuke asked.

Hiei turned towards him with a dark and ominous look. Yusuke and the rest of the team immediately knew what had happened to Rian. They just didn't know how they were going to get her back.

**YYH**

A/N: DONE! Sorry it isn't as long as the others but it took me a long time to write this for unforeseen reasons and I wanted to get it out to you ASAP. Plus, I wanted it to end where it ended. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, so please review to let me know how much you loved it!

Until next time, The Crazi Greek.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Okay, so this chapter is where the plot actually starts to thicken. Also, once again, I am very sorry about how long it has taken me to update this story. Chapter 7 was an unforeseen obstacle but I hope you will all forgive me. Please also give a round of applause to my amazing beta reader, ayane jaganshi, she's amazing. Now on to the fic!

Warnings: Some graphic stuff in this, like blood and gore. If you don't like that then please don't read, but know that it is important towards the plot.

Disclaimer: In the first chapter but here's a reminder; I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho and I am not making any money by writing this.

Atlas Shrugged – Chap. 8

**YYH**

Darkness: that was all there was as far as the eye could see. No sound, no feeling, no scent – just darkness. That was what Rian awoke to and what she had been in for what felt like eons. The passage of time didn't seem to matter in this place, like it was something separate from the regular universe. She had tried to scream but no sound came from her throat, she had tried to walk and feel around the place but no matter how far she went she never felt anything. She was tired; so very tired. Sitting alone in what could only be hell Rian lay on the ground and curled into a ball, knowing she would never get out of wherever she was. Heaving out dry sobs because her tears could not fall, she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

**YYH**

"FUCK!" Hiei was beyond pissed and upset; he was furious and ready to kill the first thing that even looked at him.

Punching the tree he had already destroyed once again, Hiei growled, not noticing that his knuckles were bloodied and that his energy was flaring to the point where the rest of the team was worried he would morph to his full demon form. Why had he not gotten there in time? Why, when he could run like the wind, did he not reach her? What use was he? With another growl, Hiei switched to kicking the shit out of the tree instead. He had splinters in his hands, cuts from flying chunks of wood across his cheeks, and his feet would soon be feeling the same pain. Not that he noticed any of this, but Yusuke winced in pity for him because he knew later that it was going to hurt like hell.

"Hiei, come on man, we'll get her back. You know we will. Don't take it so hard, okay?" Yusuke tried to console him, letting go of the differences they had been suffering with lately.

"Urameshi is right; we'll go talk to Koenma and figure this out." Kuwabara stepped forward with the intent to stop Hiei from kicking the tree once again but, instead, took a step back as he was leveled with Hiei's glare.

"Hiei, that's enough! This isn't going to help Rian and the more time we waste the farther away her kidnapper gets. If you would like to accompany us when we go contact Koenma then I suggest you stop acting like a child having a temper tantrum." Kurama's voice was absolute and brooked no suggestion to arguments.

Yusuke and Kuwabara stared with wide eyes expecting Hiei to lash out at Kurama and kill him for such insolence, but instead Hiei turned with eyes that almost looked sad and sighed. Hiei nodded, agreeing with Kurama and instead proceeded out of the woods without speaking another word.

"Well, that went better than I thought it would." Kurama grinned, turning to the other two who only gave him incredulous looks.

"Kurama, you are one crazy bastard," Yusuke said, shaking his head.

Kurama only smiled and followed in Hiei's footsteps out of the forest. Kuwabara and Yusuke followed, knowing they were going to have a long day ahead of them.

**YYH**

With a start Rian woke, shooting up into a sitting position. What had woken her? Squinting in the darkness she realized what it was, a rushing noise, like waves on a beach. Standing quickly, she turned in a circle, trying to figure out where it was coming from when she felt the wetness on her feet.

"What?" She stared in amazement at the water surrounding her feet. She had spoken she realized, but she was still unable to hear it. She knew that she had said something, though, like it was in her head.

The water was rising fast and the rushing noise got louder and louder. Rian tried to run but soon she could not move at all. She was stuck as the water rose around her knees, then her waist and up her arms, until finally it reached her neck. Rian couldn't move to swim and so the water engulfed her completely; she choked and sputtered but it rushed into her lungs, suffocating her and pulling her deep down into its depths. She struggled but it was futile and slowly Rian began to drown, her eyes drooped, and then she passed out.

Rian woke with a start, shooting up into a sitting position.

"What?" She was so confused, so lost. What was going on?

Rian started to cry, she felt so helpless. She knew that her drowning hadn't been a dream, it had felt so real. Why was this happening? Looking around her, Rian noticed that there was another noise: footsteps, she realized. She couldn't pinpoint where they were coming from but she began to yell in hopes that whoever it was would hear her.

A hand grabbed her shoulder and she jumped in surprise, turning around with a smile. She believed she was going to be saved until a knife was plunged into her stomach. Crying out, Rian fell to her knees and looked up at her attacker. She could not see his face but she could plainly see the shiny, cold knife as it rushed towards her again, this time stabbing her in the chest. With her last breath she called out Hiei's name and then she was gone.

For the third time Rian awoke with a start. This time she didn't move, only laid running her hands over her stomach and chest checking for blood or wounds of any kind. There were none and now she was positive what was happening to her.

She was being tortured.

**YYH**

"Koenma, will you just shut up and listen to me for a god damn second?" Yusuke yelled into the communicator.

As soon as they had gotten back to the temple Yusuke had pulled it out and contacted the child ruler but as soon as he said the words "Rian" and "missing" Koenma had gone off on a tangent that had taken so long that everyone that had been listening was beyond frustrated with him. In his toddler form it would have normally been funny for Yusuke to watch but today nothing was funny and he was about sick and tired of people yelling at him for things that were out of his control. After he had yelled, Koenma had finally shut up but was now staring at Yusuke with an extremely pissed off look on his baby face.

"Well, what do you have to say on the matter Yusuke? How you're a failure? How you screwed up? You were supposed to be watching her, so please, by all means tell me what you have to say. Not that any explanation is going to save your ass."

"Listen, I had no idea she'd wandered into the forest. She was angry because Kurama cut her hair wrong and she had stormed off. I saw her go into the temple, I just never saw her come back out. You're right, this is my fault and I take full responsibility." Yusuke lowered his head not able to look any of them in the eye.

"Hey! Don't talk to Urameshi that way! It wasn't his fault and he's not a failure!" Kuwabara yelled.

"Kuwabara, it's okay. It is my fault because once again I wasn't on my game." Yusuke shook his head sadly.

"But, Urameshi…"

"I've been thinking about Keiko too much, about how I'll never live a normal life, hell I'll never be normal anyway so why bother to try? But I'm done. Fuck Keiko, fuck being normal and fuck moping! I'm proud of who I am! I'm a motherfucking, goddamn spirit detective and a king! It's about time I act like it!" Raising his head proudly, everyone could see the determined, fiery look in Yusuke's eyes.

A hand fell onto his shoulder and Yusuke looked up at the smiling face of Kuwabara; at the pride in the other man's eyes and Yusuke knew then that everything would be okay. Patting Kuwabara's hand, Yusuke let it fall from his shoulder as he walked towards Hiei who was sitting in a corner of the room, with a dead look in his eyes. Yusuke tossed the communicator behind him knowing that someone would catch it and take up the responsibility of listening to Koenma bitch. Reaching Hiei, Yusuke kneeled to his level and waited until those blood red orbs finally looked up at him.

"I forgive you for everything and I am so sorry for everything I've done to you. You are one of my best friends Hiei. You've been here for me just like everyone else and you've been through so much shit in your life that it isn't fair to put you through more. Right now I am going to promise you that we will get her back; that we'll make sure she comes back to us no matter what. And I also promise you, that when the time comes; I'll help you tell them both what they deserve to know."

Yusuke reached a hand out towards Hiei, the look on his face telling the much older demon that everything the detective said was sincere and that he would keep his promises no matter the cost. He also knew what Yusuke meant when he said he'd help him tell them both. He was far from ready for either one but he kept in mind that he would not have to do it alone. Looking at the detective's face Hiei felt for the first time that he had a true friend, not one that was out to gain something from him or to hurt him for their own benefit. His mind brought up the day that Yusuke had finally defeated Sensui, how they had all laughed afterwards. That had been the first and only time Hiei had honestly been able to smile, to laugh and feel happy.

"Detective…thank you."

A large grin spread across Yusuke's face as he held out his hand to give Hiei a lift up but as Hiei reached for his hand the little demon's face scrunched up in pain.

"Hiei, are you okay?" Hiei didn't answer as that pain quickly turned to agony.

Hiei fell to his knees, a hand gripping his head as if trying to keep it from splitting in half. Blood dripped from the Jagan onto the wooden floor and as Yusuke shot forwards to help him Hiei's eyes flashed open wide and then…he screamed.

**YYH**

Back in the darkness Rian was running as fast as she was able, her breathing labored and sweat covering every inch of her. A panicked look on her face changed to one of downright fear as the thing that was chasing her finally caught up. It was a wolf the size of a large bear with razor sharp teeth and the intent to kill in its eyes. Rian tried to run faster but it only seemed to make her go slower and before long the wolf pounced, pinning her to the ground. Rian screamed as the first bite tore into her side, then her legs, her arms, and slowly she was eaten alive; her screams not reaching any ears. As death finally began to claim her Rian wondered what would come for her next. She had been drowned, stabbed, shot, burned, and now eaten. How long was she going to be able to endure this? With one final chomp the wolf bit into her throat, spraying blood into the nothingness and Rian closed her eyes for what she could wish was the final time.

A second later she awoke again just as she expected she would. Sitting up she didn't bother checking for injuries as she already knew there wouldn't be any. They always went away when she woke up again.

"Am I going crazy? What is this?" Shaking her head, she stood so she would be prepared for what got her next but as she tried to rise she hit her head on something. This was the first time she had felt anything besides the things that killed her. Looking up Rian realized she was surrounded by metal – a metal box to be exact.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Breathing heavy and already starting to hyperventilate, Rian realized she was in fact buried alive. She could smell the earth that surrounded the box on the outside, she could feel the pressure it created on the metal and she knew this death would be a long one.

Crying or screaming would do her no good so she tried to calm her breathing knowing that the more breaths she took the faster she'd suffocate. She kicked the sides of the box hoping to discover a weak point but there were none to be found and her struggling was futile. Rian knew that she would once again die in a horrific manner and no matter what she did there was no escaping that fate. Rian dug around in her pockets looking for anything she could possibly kill herself with just to make it quicker and wondered if she was the one to commit the final act she would stay dead, but there was nothing and so she resigned herself to her fate and lay waiting for the air to finally become thin.

**YYH**

"Ha ha ha! That was a good one Malik, very creative and sure to scar her for life." One of Malik's cronies laughed.

Malik didn't know the idiots name nor did he care what it was, he had more important things to concentrate on than the ramblings of some moron. Currently he was sitting in an all white room, where there was nothing to distract him besides the images on a large television screen and the idiot that had brought him his lunch. A cord was connected to the TV from his head and he was the one projecting the images onto the screen. He had trapped Rian in her own mind but he was the one feeding her the images of her own death. He came up with a new one every time and didn't plan to repeat any of them. Not until he got to the finale anyway, then he'd throw everything he had at her. A wicked smirk crossed his face as he watched her struggle in the metal box he had chosen for her to die in. Ah, how beautiful it was, watching someone in their last moments as they fought so hard to hold onto the vestiges of their life; even though they knew it was inevitable that they wouldn't last. It was pathetic really but so entertaining, Malik thought. He watched as the girl pulled in a last breath, she was fading fast, until she was gone once again. Malik started thinking of his next extraordinary cause of death with a shit eating grin on his pale face.

He would break the girl until she told him how she used her powers and then he would relay this information onto his boss. Once she was crazy from all these horrific events he would pry that information from her mind, because currently he had no chance of getting past the walls she had created in her head.

"Stupid girl; if you had just let me in to begin with I wouldn't have to do this." Not that he wasn't enjoying it, that is.

**YYH**

In the end Hiei had not stopped screaming, no matter who tried to calm him down. Yusuke had to knock him out and, even then, Hiei fretted as he lay in bed. He would let out moans and whimpers as if he were having a horrible nightmare.

"What's wrong with him?" Yusuke whispered as the team watched over Hiei in his forced sleep.

"I don't know, Yusuke. I can make a guess as to what could be causing it but not why, just the how. I have a feeling that when Hiei licked Rian that time, he was licking up a spot of blood on her neck. I believe this caused him to be connected to her in some way, a lot worse than the rest of us are. You have noticed the strange pull she has on the ones around her, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I noticed, but I didn't know if anyone else had so I never mentioned it." Yusuke looked towards Kuwabara to see if he had felt it too and received a nod for his efforts.

"I think it has to do with her blood; that there is something special in it. Because of that Hiei is now connected to her mind. Something horrible must be happening to her but I can't know what until I can gain access to Hiei's mind. He needs to be awake and lucid for that to happen as I have no telepathic powers of my own."

"I called for Yukina; she'll be in here soon. Not that Hiei's going to appreciate getting his sister involved," Yusuke mumbled.

"She won't be able to go anywhere near the Jagan. I know for a fact that it will reject her healing touch and possibly hurt her. For Hiei's sake, I'll make sure she doesn't touch it."

"Why would it reject her?" Kuwabara asked, a quizzical look on his face.

"I don't believe you're still so dense. Well, I'm not going to be the one who tells you. Ask Hiei if you really want to know…when he wakes up that is." Yusuke rolled his eyes, amazed at Kuwabara's continued idiocy.

Yusuke quickly cut off their conversation as Yukina came rushing in with the supplies she had needed to gather; a fresh bandage to wrap around Hiei's head and several ointments. Placing them all on his bedside table Yukina made short work of the bandana Hiei normally wore, which was now soaked completely in blood, and carefully removed it from the Jagan. Putting it aside she reached for the bowl of water and cloth that she had already brought into the room and gently cleaned all the blood from Hiei's forehead.

"Yukina…please don't try to heal it," Kurama implored her.

"Please don't worry, I already know not to. Hiei scolded me a couple of years ago for trying to heal it and I know better now." She didn't look up, just continued her work.

Throwing the now soiled cloth back into the bowl of water, Yukina reached towards her ointments. She had three different ones but the boys watched as she opened each one, scooped a small amount out of each with her finger, and then mixed all three together into one. She then swiped it across the third eye, making sure it was completely covered. Yusuke had no idea what it was she was using, but he watched as steam rose from the eye and the ointment seemed to get absorbed immediately, healing whatever was wrong with it. Yukina then beckoned Kurama over so he could hold up Hiei's head while she wrapped the bandage around it. By the time she was finished Hiei was groaning.

"He seems to be coming around, let's give him some room." Kurama backed up and Yukina, though worried about Hiei, decided it would be best if she put away her supplies.

Hiei let out another moan before his eyes finally peeled themselves apart, the bright light streaming through his window stung his eyes and they snapped shut again. Instead he rolled over away from it before trying again; this time he was successful and red orbs landed on his three team mates. He did not say anything, just looked at them. His head was killing him and, for some odd reason, he felt like almost crying. That was absurd though, Hiei does not cry and he never would if he could help it. His eyes roamed from Yusuke to Kurama, to finally land on the big oaf who had the oddest look on his face.

"Why are you looking at me like that baka?" Hiei's voice was scratchy as if he hadn't used it recently.

"Well you must already be feeling better if you're back to calling me names, midget."

Clearing his throat Hiei tried again, "I asked you a question human." His voice continued to sound raspy.

"I have to ask you something, but I don't know if this is the best time. We did have to knock you out after all."

"What?" Hiei moved to sit up but a restraining hand from Kurama pushed him back towards the bed.

"We'll get to that in a minute; I think we should allow Kazuma to ask his question." Kurama sat on the edge of Hiei's bed, just to make sure he didn't try to rise again.

"Fine," Hiei growled.

"Well, you see, Kurama and Urameshi were talking about Yukina and how she can't heal your Jagan with her powers. I don't really understand why and they told me to ask you, so…um…why?"

"This isn't something I like to discuss with anyone, let alone you. What makes you think I should answer?"

"Because I'm your fucking teammate and I carried your limp ass in here, that's why."

Hiei's eyes twitched and he shot an accusing glare at Kurama before turning back to Kuwabara. He had a nasty look on his face and if Kuwabara didn't know better he would think Hiei was going to come at him and kill him if at all possible. Instead he started to talk; he was hesitant to start but with a nudge from Kurama he began.

"Yukina is my twin sister. You already know where she comes from – a floating ice island where no men area allowed, thus why I was not raised there. I received the Jagan to find her and protect her. Because of this she isn't allowed to heal it and when she touches it she must be very careful. It could hurt her; especially if she found out she was my sister. So please, don't speak a word of this!"

"Did you just say please? To me?" Kuwabara started to snort until he couldn't hold it in anymore and started full blown laughing. The infection caught and soon Yusuke was in fits of laughter along with him.

"It is not funny!" Hiei went to rise again so he could kick the shit out of both of them, but once again Kurama pinned him down and Hiei finally took notice that he was too weak to prevent it.

Ignoring the fact that he was being laughed at and also that he had shown a vulnerable part of himself to the oaf, Hiei sat up, placating Kurama by assuring him he was not leaving the bed. He did not remember much of what had happened to him, only that he had come out of the forest and he remembered Yusuke talking to him. After that everything was blank. This frustrated him to no end; he hated not knowing.

"What happened to me?"

Immediately the laughter stopped and solemn looks crossed the faces of the two idiots, whereas Kurama turned towards him, taking it upon himself to be the one to explain.

"You remember your talk with Yusuke, yes?" A nod from Hiei, "Well when you went to stand, some kind of excruciating pain passed through you and you began to scream. It continued on like this for a while and all of us tried to get you to stop, but nothing worked. Finally we had to knock you out and we apologize for that but it was necessary. Your Jagan was bleeding but luckily Yukina was able to use an ointment that cured most of the damage. I need to know if you remember what caused it; please think on it hard because it could be an important clue towards finding Rian."

Hiei agreed and thus began to wrack his brain for the answers everyone was seeking, not only himself. He remembered reaching up to take the detective's hand and as soon as he had, something happened, but what? Pain, lots of pain especially in his head and his Jagan eye, but what caused it? Reaching deep within the depths of his own mind Hiei pulled up the last memory he had before the pain had exploded beyond the point of coherent thought. As he reached for Yusuke's hand an image came to him, it had been very vivid and he had been able to feel everything that was going on. Then suddenly he remembered, wholly and completely.

"It was Rian, she was in so much pain and she had been screaming, crying out for me but I could not reach her. Someone…had stabbed her through the heart and before she collapsed she had called my name. That is when the pain came."

"I was correct in my assumptions then." Kurama nodded.

"It would seem so Kurama…" A new voice said gravely before he entered. Koenma strolled into the room in his teenage form, hands stuck in the pockets of his slacks.

The team looked up in surprise at him and Kurama gave Yusuke a dirty look before he blurted out something inexcusable to the child ruler.

"This is going to cause some problems but Hiei, I am going to need you to follow the link you have with her so you can lead the team to her exact location. It is imperative we get her back because I am now certain of who took her. If we don't save her he will drive her mad, eventually warping her mind so much that she will not even recognize herself."

"Who is it?" Yusuke asked, his voice menacing.

"His name is Malik and I am positive he's not working alone in this endeavor. He's an S class demon with a very strong psychic power that is even worse than the Jagan. There is no way to defend against it, I'm afraid, unless you're Hiei. Even then he will give him a run for his money, perhaps even break down Hiei's barriers if he isn't careful enough."

"How are we to go about this then? I have fairly sturdy mental blocks myself, but I'm guessing that won't be enough," Kurama stated.

"No, they won't. You may last longer than say Kuwabara or Yusuke, but not long enough to rescue her. This is going to need to be a surprise attack while Malik is messing with Rian's head. Yusuke, you're going to need to take down all of his henchmen, otherwise they will warn him and he will flee with her in tow. Afterwards I want you, Kuwabara and Kurama to only provide back-up while Hiei takes on Malik. The only way to break his hold on Rian's mind is to kill him; otherwise he will be able to get back in as he pleases. Distance between them will help and he won't be able to hurt her as much, but he will still be able to come to her in her dreams if he is not taken care of."

The team listened avidly and was already starting to gear themselves up for the coming battle, when Kurama pointed something out, "Do you know where he is then?"

The boys deflated as Koenma thought over his answer, "Well, I don't know the exact location, but the general area, yes. He'll be hidden somewhere secluded and in a place not easily recognized by the untrained eye."

"So I'm guessing Makai then?" Yusuke asked.

"No, he's not in Makai, he's still hiding here in Japan but his lair is in a separate dimension off of this one and finding the entrance is the hard part. Getting through it not so much but that is because he suspected no one would be able to find it. Like I said, I know its general location but it is going to be your job to find the actual entrance."

"Alright, shouldn't be too hard. Just point us in the right direction and we'll be on our way then." Yusuke cracked his knuckles; he was going to give this bastard one hell of a beating.

Yusuke looked towards Hiei and he realized that he would never get the chance; the killing intent in the fire demon's eyes was proof enough of that. Hiei would make that man pay for what he had done, Yusuke knew, and so he would leave the task totally to Hiei and stay out of it as much as he didn't want to. His imouto was in pain, that much was certain and he hoped they would be able to stop it.

"Hiei, if Rian was stabbed…did she die?" Kuwabara mumbled the question everyone had been afraid to ask.

"No…it was as if her mind was showing her these things. Killing her subconscious and then bringing her back; I felt that much from her because she was dreading waking up again only to have to die all over."

"How horrible," Kurama whispered.

"He's torturing her," Hiei stated.

"Yes, Malik uses this technique on his victims quite often, which is why you guys need to be cautious when you approach him. If he catches you in his trap you will suffer however he feels fitting. From what you have told us, Hiei, I'm guessing he is killing her over and over again, trying to drive her mad." Koenma shook his head sadly at the girl's plight.

"That's fucked up," Kuwabara mumbled.

"Now, this is a mission with a time limit boys. I'm going to teleport you to the general area where we think the entrance to his dimension is at; find it quickly and take down the guy's henchmen as fast as you can. Getting to her before he messes with her too much is the most important, so blast your way through if you have to. Let's get her home and safe."

With the end of his closing speech, Koenma threw his arm out dramatically as he opened the portal up, and one by one the Tantei ran through the rift.

They came out in a very dense forest – so dense that not much light was able to reach the forest's floor. Trees spread as far as the eye could see and the team also took notice of the fact that there were no sounds besides their feet crunching across the ground. No birds, or bugs chirping, just silence and the occasional breeze blowing through the tree tops.

"How the hell are we supposed to find anything in here?" Yusuke kicked a tree trunk in frustration.

"Yeah, especially without flashlights or nothing," Kuwabara added.

"Well, I can see just fine, what about you Hiei?" Kurama chuckled.

"Perfectly," Hiei's eyes were already scanning the dense amount of trees and, with his preliminary findings, he was positive the entrance would not be found without his Jagan.

Hiei carefully peeled the bandage away and then eased his third eye open. When no pain came he allowed it to open fully and his red orbs closed as he scanned the area. He could hear the rest of his team rustling around but paid them no mind as he concentrated. Slowly he panned the eye back and forth; on his third pass he finally noticed a small pinprick of light in one of the trees.

"There." Hiei had opened his eyes and was pointing off to the side, towards a small, rotted tree. Because of the larger trees in the forest this one obviously had not been able to receive enough sunlight to nourish itself.

Walking up to the tree with the rest of the Tantei behind him, Hiei pushed his finger into what looked like a normal knot in the wood though, because of the Jagan, he knew it to be a keyhole. As his finger entered he allowed a bit of his power to seep out into the hole; this caused a bright flash of light to occur and once the Tantei could finally see again they saw that, instead of a tree, there was now a portal swirling in the darkness. As they stepped through it Hiei's one and only thought was on Rian and how he was going to save her.

**YYH**

Author's Note: I'm so sorry guys; I left you with a cliffhanger! I am so mean, I know. Anyway, please, please let me know how you liked it. Reviews are always welcome and appreciated as is constructive criticism. Once again thank you to all who have reviewed and favorited this story!

Also, Rian was acting like such a pansy in this chapter because it is in fact her subconscious speaking, not herself. Her subconscious is a sensitive girl, instead of the tough gang leader we know and love.

Ahem, and I'm sorry if Hiei seemed a little OOC, I'm not too sure though, so let me know!

Until next time, The Crazi Greek.


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